


The New Argent

by Thedeanael



Series: The story of Stella Argent [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Beacon Hills High School, Fanfiction, Supernatural - Freeform, Teen Wolf, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-04
Updated: 2020-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:20:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 23,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23017657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thedeanael/pseuds/Thedeanael
Summary: There is a new Argent in town. Stella Argent. who moves back to Beacon Hills after the death of her mother and everything that happened back in New York.
Relationships: Allison Argent/Scott McCall
Series: The story of Stella Argent [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1753387
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	The New Argent

**Author's Note:**

> I only wrote the story the way I pictured it to be, I did not create the character so just a heads-up! 
> 
> Also... Sorry for the upcoming typos. I tend to make a lot of them ^^
> 
> Enjoyy

_Welcome to Beacon Hills…_

Even with a glance at the sign, she could already feel the memories coming back to her. It wasn’t even because she had a lot of them, it was just the ones she had was a lot permanent than the others.

The first memory that came to her mind was her first visit after moving away from Beacon Hills. She was born here and in fact, she’s lived here since she was 7 years old. But she didn’t have any memory of her time here. It may have to do with how boring this town was. At least that’s what she thought or kind of hoped for.

She had lived a more rememberable life in New York after all.

Young girl didn’t stay settled in any places longer than she stayed in Beacon Hills after moving away at the age of 6, almost 7. They were constantly moving, like a wanderer, they’ve lived in several places in the States. Even for a little while in France. Almost every year, she was the ‘new girl’ in her school but finally, when she turned 12, she decided to settle with her grandparents in New York. Her mother was traveling all the time and staying away from her daughter, meanwhile she started to live a normal, so-called monotone life like every other human being on the planet.

But Beacon Hills wasn’t a normal place. There was nothing normal here, only lies and made up tales to hide the abnormal. She was hearing and bearing them all the time, all day long. And she was playing dumb every single time.

Stella Argent… The girl who knew everything but looks like she knew nothing… That was her part in the Argent family.

She’s been through more than enough, seen more than enough and learned more than enough. The phone calls she’s overheard at 3 in the morning; the guns which were waiting to be ‘sold’ in the basement and their weird bullets; the Argent necklace, a family heirloom that had the carving of Lycan on it…

It wasn’t really hard for her to put two and two together.

2 years after learning the truth about the World, she had to go to the heart of supernatural. Just to see her cousin who she loved more than anything and anyone in the World. She was also the first and only people that she said ‘I love you’ to. She helped her cousin to unpack her stuff, found out why Argent Family suddenly moved back to Beacon Hills, had an argument with her mother as usual, did all of that in a month and left Kate behind to go back to New York and continued to act like nothing happened.

It was an ordinary visit.

But this time wasn’t ordinary or even a visit anymore.

The reason she was driving to Beacon Hills only made her want to drive away and never look back. Just like what happened in New York few days ago, the reason she was going to Beacon Hills was crushing her heart and soul even though everybody knew how strong Stella Argent was.

Her mother’s funeral… That’s why she was here. That’s why she was driving to the place where she could call ‘the hell on earth’ with her whole chest.

She pulled over to the right and covered her face with her hands. She could feel the pain and the headache that caused by the wheels in her mind, trying to show her the bad memories that she has of here. Maybe not the memories but definitely something that just made her want to leave. She needed her brain to stop working.

At least for the moment.

She could never keep driving till she get back her ‘strong girl’ face on. She worked too hard for this. When people saw a girl who was desperate, her mother was never there, didn’t know who her father was, she just stood up and smiled. After a while everybody started to see ‘the strong girl’ that she was.

She wasn’t going to lose that.

Everything she’s done, every heartbreak was a secret and they were gonna stay as that. A secret… Because after moving from Beacon Hills, even before that, there was something her mother taught her. It was the only thing Kate taught Stella for 16 years.

_“If you wanna survive in this World, you have to be enough for yourself, Stella” Kate said. “The moment you seek help from others is the moment you got weak and the weak ones are destined to get crushed and killed.” She looked at her daughter with a smile that Stella thought was perfect and pushed her blonde hair back. “There are two kinds of people. Hunters and hunts… Which one you want to be? A hunt, a hunter?”_

_Little Stella straightened up with a confidence. “Hunter!” she said. Of course, she didn’t know the true meaning behind that at the time. She only knew she didn’t want to be one of the weak ones._

_There was a proud smile on Kate’s face._

_It was the first and last time ever._

Stella was never weak. She’s always been strong. It was her identity and she wasn’t going to change it.

When her uncle, called their house to let them know about Kate’s death, she listened to the conversation. She was very calm. Maybe she decided not to come home for few days, yes, she hung out with people she wasn’t supposed to but it wasn’t her first time and it only showed tip of the iceberg, a little part of her life in New York.

Then she got arrested while breaking into someone’s house.

That was when her uncle’s calls have started, asking Stella to move in with them.

At first, due to various of reasons, she didn’t wanna go to Beacon Hills. Even with the last incidents, she would prefer New York over Beacon Hills any time.

But young girl had her limit and the house was unbearable after her grandmother’s death was now a lot more unbearable with her grandfather after Kate’s death and even though Stella didn’t want to move to Beacon Hills, she found herself packing her bags.

She’s asked about her mother’s death more than once, she kept asking knowing that they were going to lie to her. The only answer she got was car crash. Every time, they lied to her, she kept herself from screaming ‘I know you’re lying, stop with your bullshits already and tell me the truth’ but she never opened her mouth and they kept going with the lie.

Maybe she was really good at playing ‘the little girl who knows nothing’ part.

Whatever the reason was, being left in the dark was pretty annoying.

How annoying that was, she also kept lying to everyone and kept on playing dumb but she didn’t know why. Maybe it had something to do with her father who she had no idea about. Because whatever she did, how close Allison and Stella can be, she never completely felt like an Argent.

That’s why she never bonded more than necessary other than Allison. She never felt the need to.

Her thoughts interrupted with the sound of her phone. She brushed her hair back and turn the air conditioner off as she rolled the windows down, thinking that she needs fresh hair. Then she reached to her bag which she tossed to the passenger seat. Touched the green icon and put her phone on her ear.

She immediately heard her cousin’s voice.

“Stella!” Allison’s voice was cheerful as always and as always, it made Stella feel relaxed and put a smile on her face. Because Allison was the first and only person that she could call her friend. “Where are you? According to my dad, you should’ve been here, like, two hours ago.”

Stella took a deep breath in as she bit her lip. As she started the car again, she was more herself and felt stronger than before. As her tires were on the road again, she looked around. She was close to their house.

But first she had to make one more stop.

“I don’t know if you know but driving to California from New York takes exactly 48 hours Ally, reminds me why I hate long car rides” she explained. Allison could tell that she was smiling from her voice. Stella knew it was her idea to drive because she had lots of things to think about. She needed to clear her head. In fact, driving more than 48 hours helped a lot but it still didn’t change the fact that she hates long drives.

Allison knowing that, she laughed softly at Stella’s tone. Meantime, Stella drive past a car which was doing something else she hated. It was driving so slowly that as Stella drive past, she couldn’t help but roll her eyes.

“You were the one who wanted to drive and not fly” Allison said, still laughing. “If you remember, I tried to change your mind for about an hour. You were pretty stubborn.”

Stella smiled without her control. “Yes, Argent, a very good point” she said. “But still… I should be really grateful that they let me drive all the way by myself.” Allison giggled again. “I don’t know but I’d probably be there around… I don’t know, 2 more hours, give or take.”

Hearing that, Allison smiled again before parting her lips to talk. “I can’t wait to see you!” she said with a high energy. Whatever Stella felt for Allison, she also felt the same thing for Stella as well. Both spend their kindergarten years together. Stella could remember a period of time in New York with both of them. Stella was always the criminal mind and Allison was the cautious one but they were each other’s partners in crime and Stella could always make Allison smile. The bond they shared was more like siblings than cousins. “But I do have to ask something from you.”

When Allison’s voice sounded a little bit shy, Stella couldn’t help but knot her eyebrows in confusion. Because those two were never shy around each other. They trusted each other. They’d do everything together and they’d tell each other everything.

And Allison’s shyness made Stella to tell her to continue with a whisper.

“My dad…” Allison took a deep breath. “My dad doesn’t let me see Scott. After you left, there has been… Some incidents.” The tone of Allison’s voice was telling Stella those ‘incidents’ were somehow something more but Stella also knew Allison wasn’t going to tell her more on that.

That made Stella a little bit angry but she decided to let it go for the moment.

“I’ll think of something” she managed to say with a relaxed voice that won’t make Allison suspect anything.

She got what she wanted.

Allison took a deep breath. “My mom isn’t even in the house and won’t come till midnight” Allison said, making Stella’s job a little easier. That meant only one Argent to prevent from going home and Stella was pretty happy that this Argent was her uncle Chris. “All you need to do is stall my dad for a while.”

“Don’t worry Allison” Stella said with a comforting voice. She drove past the police station and immediately grimaced with the memory of NYPD. “Wait for me to call you back in half an hour.”

Allison clapped in joy, they said their goodbyes to each other and Stella hang up the phone before she tossed it back to the passenger seat.

She stopped her car at the red light and took a breath. When she looked to her right, she could see the part of the Beacon Hills woods. These woods were still the main concept of her dreams and nightmares. It was just there since she could remember. And when the light turned to green, that was also the direction she wheeled to because before everything, she had to go somewhere. There was someone she hoped to find like the last time she was here.

She was hoping to find Derek Hale.

She parked her car, got out, fixed her jacket and looked back over her shoulder. No one seemed to be there, it was silent. Even the birds could be heard from the distance. She could hear the sounds of the leaves dancing through the wind.

She took a deep breath as she dived into the woods and started to walk on the path that she knew from her time in Beacon Hills. She knew where she was going, she headed directly towards that direction.

Even though she was here 7 years of her 16 years life, the only thing she could clearly remember was the woods.

The reason of it was still a mystery to the young girl.

The clean air filled her lungs once again as she kept walking in the depths of the woods. Nobody should’ve known that she was here in the first place.

Because nobody knew what happened last year.

_**** As she ran into the deepest parts of the woods, she was trying to get rid of the images that she saw last night but even though she was never here before, the fact that it was familiar to her wasn’t helping that at all._

_She ran faster._

_Maybe she was trying to run away from the images but she was failing._

_As Stella ran, there were less trees and all of a sudden there was a 3-floored, half burn, dark wooden house. This house was practically in the middle of nowhere. Stella couldn’t think of anyone who could know about this place._

_But somehow this house looked very familiar to Stella and when she realized it was the same house that was in her hallucination last night, she felt a lightning strike through her body._

_She stepped back with reflex._

_Stella looked at the house from a distance for a while, waiting for her heart rates go back to normal and healthy. She later realized her feet already started to move towards to house._

_It was literally burned down. She could see what was behind it through the front door._

_The minute she stepped on the porch, she heard creak noises._

_But it wasn’t the only thing she has heard._

_Her footsteps were followed with the sound of the leaves and someone asking what the hell she was doing there. The man’s voice made Stella stop in her spot. Even though she hesitated to turn back, she knew she had to._

_She slowly turned back saw the guy who asked her the question. He was wearing a black leather jacket, grey shirt and jeans. As far as she could see his eyes were green. His face structure and the look on his face seemed extremely familiar to Stella for some reason._

_She could even swear she has never seen him in her life before._

_“What do I look like I’m doing?” Stella answered, opened her hands to both sides for to show him what she was wearing, her sports clothes. The way she was nervous didn’t make her sarcasm to go away, in fact it was the reason for her sarcasm._

_The guy lifted his eyebrows and looked at Stella. It was obvious it wasn’t answer he was waiting for but Stella didn’t care and she kept looking at him with confidence._

_“You might wanna continue your jog somewhere else” the guy reacted with a harsh voice tone. “There is nothing to see here.” Stella who wouldn’t do what she was told to was pretty messed up and didn’t want any trouble at the time. She promised herself that she was gonna come back and continue to jog the other way. ****_

Stella, pushed the memory about the house to back of her brain and kept on walking. The leaves were rustling with every step she took.

She’s visited the house until the day she went back to New York but there was nothing. In it, there was only broken glasses and burned furniture. Even Derek Hale seemed like he was avoiding her for the rest of the week.

“You again?” She heard a voice saying. Deja vu filled her entire body as she put a victory smile on her face and looked back. She found the person she was looking for.

Derek Hale.

“Why do you keep coming here?” Derek continued. He had almost the same outfit like last year. He was covered in black. “I told you there was nothing to see here a year ago.” Stella bit her upper lip as she looked around nervously. She thought about the reasons why she was there.

“I don’t usually do what I’m told to. If you thought that way on our first meeting…” Stella started to speak, looking at Derek. Put her hand on her heart and kept going. “… It’s on me and I am sorry for that.” When she saw Hale rolling his eyes, she couldn’t help but feel satisfied for some reason but didn’t show that. Instead she kept on talking. “But the real reason why I’m here is that…” She stopped. As she let an air in through her teeth, she stopped looking around and humidify her lips using her tongue. She looked directly at Derek. “I want to apologize. I know what my mom did, what Kate did and I am sorry.” Stella stopped talking again. “Which I have to add, it’s not something I usually say.” She frowned but then continued. “In fact it’s not something I ever say but what my mom did can have no reasonable explanation. So…”

It was Derek’s turn to frown, hearing those things from the daughter of the woman that killed his entire family. He looked at her, trying to make something out of her but then crossed his arms in front of his chest. “You are Stella, Allison’s cousin” he said, making Stella shrug. Stella kept on looking at Derek the way he was looking at her. She waited Derek to ask the question she knew he had in mind. “You know more than they think you do, don’t you?”

Stella nodded again. “That’s a fact Derek but I wouldn’t say I know everything” Stella said, being confident as she went downstairs slowly, then kept on walking towards Derek. She straightened up, looked at Derek. She was focused, confident. Derek could see that. “They are hiding something from me. How my mom actually died… And I want to know. I think you are the only person that’s gonna tell me the actual story and not a fake one.” Young girl stopped, smiled softly and moved her eyebrows. “Technically.”

Derek kept his arms crossed on his chest and looked at Stella like he was measuring her. He liked the confidence and he already knew he wasn’t going to be able to hide anything from her. That’s why he was super relaxed while telling the young Argent in front of him everything she wanted to hear truthfully. 

After spending really informational half an hour with Derek Hale, she started to walk towards to her car. She had to help Allison but after what she’s learned from Derek… Stella felt like her brain stopped working. That’s why there was only one thing she could do.

Improvise.

She looked at the time on her phone. It was almost 7 PM, the sky was pretty dark. She couldn’t stop but think about the actual way of her mother dying. She couldn’t stop the scene playing in the back of her mind.

Everyone saw her as stone-cold person. And perhaps she actually was. She buried every pain inside, wouldn’t let anybody see her. But her mom was her weakness. It’s almost the same situation to every kid out there but it was little bit different for Stella.

Stella never used ‘I love you’ in her whole life. The only person she said it to was her cousin. Allison… She didn’t even say that to her mom. Ever. But she grew up without a father and her mother was never there physically but Stella always felt her presence spiritually. Even knowing what she has done, Kate Argent would always matter to Stella. It wasn’t going to change any time soon.

She took a deep breath, walked to the hood of her car. Opened it up and looked at the mechanism that she had no idea about. She grimaced instantly, thinking what was she supposed to be doing. She could just mess up with the tires but a) she didn’t have any hard or pointy stuff on her and b) her uncle knew that Stella was able to change tires on her own. That was why she had to ‘break’ her beautiful car.

She let out her breath with a curse and put her hands near the open hood. “Scott better worth it Allison or I’m breaking my car for nothing” she murmured to herself and pulled the first thing she grabbed to herself. She didn’t know what it was but it didn’t seem like it worked.

She pulled more.

10 minutes later, there was a White cloud coming out of her car. She grimaced again, swearing. Her hand was covered in black liquid. Got her phone and coughing, she called her uncle. “Stella, where are you?” was the first thing Chris asked when he answered his niece’s call. His voice was full of worry and concern.

Stella coughed again and shook her hand to White cloud which was flooding do her. “God” she murmured. _I might have actually broken my car_ , she thought and even though she loved her cousin way too much, she couldn’t wait to remind Allison that she owed her BIG time. “My car broke down near the woods. Yes, I might be a genius…” She heard her uncle’s soft chuckle. “But I don’t know anything about cars besides changing the tires. I tried to fix it but… I think I did it worse.”

This little rant made Chris smile as he leaned down and grab the keys to his car on the coffee table and then he shouted. “Allison, I’m going to get your cousin!” Stella found herself smiling with the victory and then heard her uncle’s voice again, this time talking to her. “I’ll be there in few.”

Stella nodded, knowing he won’t see it. “Alright, see you” she chimed and then ended the call as she looked at her car, pouting. But then she found herself thinking about the conversation she had with Derek only half an hour ago. She didn’t want to believe her mother burned down that huge house. It wasn’t just the Kate Argent image in her head. It wasn’t because she had some alone time with her mother or anything but still… she cared about her and even though she never told to anyone but she loved her mom.

She didn’t want to believe she was a bad person.

Her eyes dazzled with two white lights coming from her uncle’s black car, it also showed the tears in her brown eyes. Stiles wiped away the tears so fast that Chris almost wasn’t sure he saw them. When was the last time she cried? Stella couldn’t even remember and first day back in Beacon Hills, boom! Tears.

Stella pushed herself from the car she was leaning against as Chris got up to her and pulled her into his arms for a welcoming hug. Replacing a small kiss on her head, he pulled back and his lips parted. “Hey, you okay?” Chris asked. He saw the wetness around her eyes but he just couldn’t place it. He knew his niece. He looked after her when Kate wasn’t around. He was the closest thing to a father figure for Stella. Seeing her like that made him worried, that was for sure.

“Yeah” she said, trying to change the subject. She sniffed as she followed her uncle who walked over to Stella’s black car to look at the mechanism. “I’ve been on the road for almost 6 days. I am just super tired.” Chris nodded slowly, opened the hood and looked for the issue. As he was explaining things to Stella, she grimaced instantly. Put her hands near her face in the air and shook her head. “Just fix it, okay? I am the last person you can talk about electricity and car fix.” Chris found himself laughing softly at his niece. He knew Stella was extremely smart but, somehow, she had problems with these two subjects.

Later Stella found out, maybe she wasn’t good at fixing her car but apparently, she was great at breaking it. It took almost 40 minutes for Chris to fix the car and when he finally closed the hood, he was covered in dirt.

Her uncle helped carry her bag to the house. The minute she entered the Argent mansion, first person she saw was her aunt Victoria. This woman always kind of scared Stella with her ice blue eyes and red short hair. It wasn’t scary to live in a World with werewolves in it for Stella maybe but she would never want to see Victoria Argent angry.

Even though, she’s always been so nice to her.

Her aunt greeted her with a smile as she stood up and hugged her. “Welcome, sweetheart” she said, rubbing her back softly. Stella pulled herself back with a smile as Victoria eyed her. “Ah look how much you grown up!”

She shrugged with a soft scoff. “That’s what the time does, I guess” she answered, adding a little sarcasm only making Victoria and Chris to laugh a little. Stella smiled back but all she could think about was seeing her cousin. It’s been a while since the last time and she’s missed her so much.

Chris smiled softly. He knew her niece very well, he could guess what she was thinking. “I’m gonna take a shower honey. I’m covered with smoke” he announced, smiling at Victoria and then looked at Stella. “Allison must be in her room.” Stella softly nodded with a smile. “You know where you’ll be staying, right?” he asked as he placed his keys back to the table. Victoria was sitting on the couch but instead of reading her book, she was looking at Stella.

Stella, didn’t break the smile and looked at her uncle as she nodded. “Yes” she answered with a smile and before taking her bags and head to the staircase to leave them in her room, she looked at her uncle and aunt. “I’ll probably be there after seeing Allison. It’s been 6 days since I slept in a comfortable bed.”

Chris nodded and then watched his niece going upstairs after seeing the confirmation on their faces. He couldn’t help but think how strong she was. She didn’t know who her father was, her mother was never there, she lived her entire life with either baby sitters or her grandparents. He knew Stella was in pain due to everything that she went through starting from the young age but he knew she loved her mother even then and she was pretty good at hiding the pain that was caused by the lack of parental figure in her life.

Whoever her father was, Chris knew she was an amazing Argent at heart.

Stella entered the room she was gonna be staying in from now on, put her bags on the floor next to the door on the floor. Her brown eyes locked up on the king-sized bed in front of the windows, placed against the wall ahead. The purple sheets were the same as last year. The room smelt fresh and soft but the memory of the hallucination that she saw during her first Beacon Hills visit was still in her mind. The fear, the anxiety and the loud scream…

All of those emotions suppressed the nice smell.

_**** She took a deep breath as she walked into the room that she was going to stay three more weeks because of her mother. She was exhausted. The long walk after the long run in the woods and the hot shower afterwards wasn’t relaxing or felt comforting at all._

_She was even more tired when she sat on the bed._

_Her hand started move up and down on the purple sheets before she pulled herself up to the bed to place her head on her pillow. The pillow was soft and comfortable. Young girl closed her eyes with the thought of a good sleep and turned to her left._

_But when she took a deep breath, thinking she was going to smell the softener, she could smell the wet dirt in her nose. And then she felt the soft breeze on her whole body, her hair moving through with it. She frowned; her eyes still closed. There was no way she left the window open._

_She was definitely confused as heck._

_And when she opened her eyelids, her brain definitely stopped working. Because instead of seeing the other side of the bed and the rest of the room, she saw the wet soil, leaves that was colored in fall colors and then few trees._

_She immediately sat up. Her heart started to beat faster as she started to breath faster alongside with it. Her chest was moving up and down very fast with every fast breath she took in and out. She had no idea what was happening and she felt like she was about to lose it._

_She could swear she was just in her room, on her bed._

_She stood up fast, looked around. She could see anything but trees. She was surrounded with trees which was normal because later she realized she was in the woods. She was too scared to make sense or even understand what was happening correctly. “It’s just a dream” she murmured to herself, closed her eyes. She was in her room, on hear bed, seeing a dream she couldn’t wake up from. “It’s just a dream.”_

_But everything was so real… She could even smell the burn. Being able to smell in a dream? Now that was something new._

_She opened her eyes back and started to run without even knowing what she was doing. She didn’t know why she was running; all she knew was she had to._

_She had to run._

_After a while, she stopped. There was a house, a big house, in front of her that was burning with flames. Stella could feel the heat, almost on her face. Everywhere was colored red due with the red-hot flames. She could hear the screams coming from the inside. They were so heart crushing, so devastating that Stella found herself trying to run towards to house._

_She had to save them._

_But she was stopped when there was something holding onto her ankle. When she looked at the ground, she saw a hand that was coming under the ground that was holding really tight to her ankle. She could also see the hand’s owner’s head and he was looking at Stella with glowing blue eyes._

_Young girl opened her lips wide open to scream. That scream was so loud that glasses and Windows were shivering. All of a sudden, the flames coming from the house were wilder._

_But what was actually happening Stella was standing in the hallway and Chris was holding her shoulders to get her back. ****_

Stella shook hear head to get rid of the memories. No, she didn’t have to go through that panic again. She didn’t need to hear those screams again. She didn’t need to smell the burn of the wooden again. She didn’t need to remember her mother was the reason for all of it again.

She closed the door behind her as she stepped to the hallway to go to Allison’s room. That night only Chris was in the house so nobody knew about it. She didn’t tell anyone about it. She could guess why Chris never told it to anyone as well but she was refusing to dig into that more.

It’s been a while she learned knowledge wasn’t always the best thing.

She reached to Allison’s door, took a deep breath and before going on, replaced a big smile on her face.

She saw her cousin as soon as she stepped into the room. She was looking at the books in front of her, covered in her blanket but one other thing that caught Stella’s attention was the broken lamp that was on the floor. She remembered that lamp.

She started to speak as she pointed lamp with her head. “You’ve broken that already?” she teasingly asked, causing Allison to look up at her. Her face filled with the biggest smile as soon as she saw Stella. “I’m not going to buy something you can break from now on, Ally.” Allison got out of her blanket so fast and walked over at Stella with big steps and then hug her cousin so tight that Stella almost couldn’t breath but she didn’t care. As they started laughing, she hugged her back as tight as Allison’s hug was.

“God! I’ve missed you so much! How are you? How was New York?” Allison asked question after question with a curious voice. Stella laughed, looking at her cousin. They sat on Allison’s bed. Allison, closed her books and put them on her nightstand before looking at Stella with one of the biggest smiles she’s ever seen on her. Stella was feeling a lot better now that she was with Allison. She smiled and nodded, telling Allison that she was fine. “How long you are gonna be staying here?”

Stella lifted her eyebrows with this question coming from Allison. “Wow Ally!” she yelled with a fake accusation. She also tried to hard not to laugh as she kept talking. “I just got back and you are kicking me out already?” Allison shoved her playfully with a smile, making Stella to burst out laughter. She put her hand on Allison’s shoulder before talking again. “I have lots of bags in my room that’s full of clothes and stuff. I’m actually pretty surprised they didn’t tell you. After getting arrested by going into some friend’s house, Chris literally begged my grandfather and got my full custody. You didn’t know?”

Allison smiled softly. “I knew _that_ ” she said, emphasizing ‘that’ but then she felt her cousin was getting a little anxious about the subject so she tried to change it. “But I don’t know what kind of friend you were talking about. Wanna enlighten me on that?” She tilted her head, looking at her cousin.

A smile that said ‘ _what do you think?_ ’ appeared on Stella’s face. “If I had a boyfriend, don’t you think you would’ve known about it, Ally?” she said eventually. Stella’s never dated anyone till now, she only killed time. She never felt anything towards anyone. Even in the latest incidents, there wasn’t any love involved. Allison was the only person Stella admitted she loved.

She was intended to keep it that way.

“Are you starting school this week?” Allison asked curiously. Stella shook her head to both sides, pulling her legs to herself and grimaced. H

er face expressions making Allison laugh, Stella answered her cousin. “After getting a permission from my uncle on doing whatever the hell I want for a while?” Stella sarcastically questioned with a grin. She laughed, stating the fact of how obvious the answer was. “You are dreaming, Argent.”

Allison laughed softly but Stella could notice the expression that was happening on Allison’s face as well. She knotted. “They don’t know you’re Kate’s daughter. If that’s what you’re afraid of…?”

Stella looked around for a while. Everything was the same as her first visit. The only difference was that Allison was totally settled, there was no unpacked boxes around. Everything was in place.

She sighed. “No one is _that_ stupid, Ally” Stella answered. A ghost of a smile appeared on her beautiful face. Allison didn’t react, she only kept looking at her cousin. Stella opened her mouth again. “Everybody in school, somehow, knows I am your cousin. One year is long enough for them to figure out who my mother is. And me coming here this time around… I probably helped them a little bit.” She shrugged. “I don’t even know if I’m gonna attend the funeral.” When Stella looked at Allison, she saw how Allison was looking at her knotting. She could guess what was she thinking. For God’s sake, it was her mother’s funeral. She had to attend to that, didn’t she?

But Allison, she understood her cousin so instead of asking why, she decided to ask another question. “What my dad thinks about it?” she softly said as Stella started to walk around in the room.

As she put her brown, long hair into a quick messy bun, she exhaled. “Even though it’s really and extremely unnecessary…” She stopped in front of the study desk and looked at the decorations with a soft smile on her face. “Right now, whatever I ask him, he will say yes to me.” She scoffed and then put down the decor that she was holding and reached for a book she glimpsed at. She went through the pages but all of a sudden there was a receipt in her hands. In the back, it said _first date with Scott_ , making Stella to smile looking back at Allison. She showed the receipts to her cousin, making her blush. “But I don’t think I can do anything about this Scott of yours.” She didn’t ask what happened as she put the receipts back because she knew Allison wasn’t going to talk about her. That’s why she let her change the subject once again.

Two girls talked about their lives, what did they miss and Allison’s life here before Stella went to bed, placing a kiss on Allison’s cheek and wished her good night.

But even though that was what Stella told to Allison, sleeping wasn’t the activity that she did when she went back to her room.

She could hear the voices from the hallway. She walked up to close the door, placed her ear on it and started to listen the conversations more clearly. She heard her uncle and two other guys. There were 3 of them, talking about a girl who was missing from the hospital.

Lydia Martin…

Stella, knowing she was Allison’s best friend, couldn’t help but frown. According to Allison, Lydia had some hard times at the school ball and was in the hospital even right now. But if Chris was talking about this girl, the reason she was in the hospital was due to supernatural reasons.

But she knew she had to follow them to be sure.

Stella bit the inner part of her cheek. She knew her plan was risky and worse than any other plan she came up with before. Her uncle could easily find out she was following them and everything would be ruined. She knew she learned more when no one knew she was part of this World.

She didn’t want to kill her information source because one of the reasons why she agreed to come here was to fill the blanks in her mind as well as finding more about this World, her mother, her whole family and her father if that was possible.

She reached out to the suitcase that had her initials on it, SDA. _Stella Diane Argent…_

She thought about her name for a while as she looked down at the leather suitcase. Her grandfather Gerard once told her that the name Diane had its own super powers but that never meant anything to Stella. All she knew about this name was that it was the roman name for Greek goddess Artemis, the goddess of hunt and Stella adored her but, somehow, she knew it wasn’t what Gerard was talking about.

She shook her head once again to get rid of the thoughts. She grabbed the gun which Gerard taught her how to use to protect herself. Even though nobody said anything about this World to her, she was training since she was 8 years old to protect herself. She knew how to use a gun and crossbow and she knew few martial arts as well.

So, technically, she completed her Argent training.

She put the gun on her belt and listened the hallway again. There wasn’t any voice, there was no one. She stepped away from the door and reached to the window after looking over her shoulder at the door one last time. It’s been a while but she was still anxious. She told her aunt that she was tired and they didn’t know Stella knew all of this but she couldn’t help but feel the anxiety anyway.

She opened the window and jumped down, landing on her two feet perfectly. It was the perk of the gymnastics class that she took with Allison when they were little girls while they were living together for a while in Washington.

She hid in the bush as she looked at the open window, smiling.

She knew every hunter had a tracking device on their car. If something were to happen to them, it would make finding them easier. They’ve been using this system for few years now and Stella was able to hack them last year.

Nobody seemed to notice yet.

She pulled her phone out and waited for any movement. It didn’t take long. Her uncle and couple of guys that she didn’t know their names of got out of the house and got into their cars and drove away. Right when Stella was about to follow them something happened that made her knot.

Allison was getting out of the house, looking around. She was now wearing a beanie and a jacket. She walked over to her car and drove away as well. She was driving towards to hospital direction as her uncle was on his way to the woods.

Even though she was curious about her cousin, she had to follow her uncle.

She managed to get to the burned house, Derek’s house without anyone noticing. She could hear what was happening it wasn’t enough. She never had any problems with her ears but when she focused more than a lot, she’d have a headache and it was so unbearable sometimes.

There were two silhouettes hiding behind the tree; one hanging down the tree, caught in a trap and she could see her uncle was talking to him. She knew Allison was one of the silhouettes behind the tree and she had a kid with a buzz-cut hair next to her that was very familiar to Stella.

And the one who was trapped in the tree was Scott McCall who Stella met the last time she was here.

One blank was filled in that moment. Chris didn’t want Allison to see Scott because Scott was a werewolf.

A hunter was in love with something that she was hunting.

Stella couldn’t help but laugh at the little irony as she got closer to a point where no one could see her but she could hear a little bit better. It was still pretty far away but it was a lot better than where she was before.

“What are you doing out here Scott?” her uncle asked, sounding very tired.

“Looking for my friend” Scott answered but it came out like a question. More like he was asking for his permission due to last events that happened between him and Argent. He was nervous and he didn’t want to make things worse than they already were. Stella pressed her lips together, knowing they were talking about Lydia.

Chris _almost_ rolled his eyes but his voice came out he did it in his mind. “Ah, that’s right.” His eyes were locked on Scott who was hanging down from the tree. Allison and the other kid were listening to their conversation nervously. “Lydia’s in your group now, isn’t she?” he asked in a sarcastic way. “Part of your clique? Is that the word you use? Or is there another way to put it? Part of your pack?”

Stella was now sure. Scott was a werewolf which made things only more complicated.

“Actually, clique sounds about right.”

“I hope so” he said, taking a deep breath in. “Because I know she’s a friend of Allison’s and one special circumstance, such as yourself, one, I can handle. Not two.”

Stella suddenly felt the anger rising inside her. Her uncle was one of the few people who actually saw her the way she was, knew how smart she actually was. But now he was talking about killing a young and innocent girl or a young and innocent boy. Stella obviously knew like every other hunter families, they had a code. _We hunt those who hunt us._ What has happened to that? Chris wasn’t acting to it.

But Stella knew who was behind it.

Scott nodded, showing Chris he understood. Argent sighed and looked at the young wolf as he parted his lips. “Scott, do you know what a hemicorporectomy is?” he asked. Stella frowned. She knew what it meant but wasn’t really happy with the direction that this conversation was headed.

“I have a feeling I don’t want to” Scott said, gulping down with fear.

Chris started his explanation. “A medical term for amputating somebody at the waist. Cutting them in half” he said. “Takes a tremendous amount of strength to cut through tissue and bone like that.” He used his hand to make it look like he was cutting Scott’s waist. As his hand fell down on his lap, his blue eyes found Scott again. “Let’s hope a demonstration never becomes necessary.” He sighed as he got up and with the two man behind him, he started walking the opposite direction.

When her uncle left, two silhouettes went clear and the kid next to Allison was a lot visible to Stella now. Her memory got back when she saw his entire face but what helped her was the expressions he was using as he kept talking with Allison.

When she actually remembered who he was, Stella rolled her eyes.

_**** When Allison went up stairs angry, Stella threw herself onto the couch and opened the TV. Chris and Victoria were out to dinner and she was by herself. Allison was at a party for a while but apparently Scott ditched her and someone named Derek brought her back home._

_As Stella rolled her eyes at Scott, there was a knock and rang bell on the door. She sighed putting her junk food on the coffee table and walked to the door._

_When she opened the door, she saw a guy with a buzz cut and wearing Brown-ish suit. He was probably in the same age as she was but even though Stella was pretty annoyed, he was in a hurry and didn’t even care about Stella’s mood. “Ahh… You are that… Other Argent…” he murmured nervously._

_Stella didn’t even hide; she rolled her eyes. Moved on her spot annoyingly looking at this boy in front of her. “You know I do have a name, right?” she questioned with a voice that showed how exhausted and annoyed she was with all the ‘The Other Argent’ stuff._

_But it didn’t affect the kid, in fact, he kept talking faster. “And it’s probably a beautiful name but I have to see Allison” he reacted anxiously. “Look, this is gonna sound very, very… very weird and yes, it is, in fact, really weird but…”_

_Stella rolled her eyes once more, looked over her shoulder and shout out Allison’s name. “Hey, Allison!” When Allison showed up at the top of the stairs, curious to what was wrong, she threw her hands in the air and pointed the guy with her head. “Totally your problem” she said as she walked over the TV. Thanks to her mother, she had almost a month off from school so she wasn’t going to waste that. ****_

“You okay?” Allison asked, worried about her boyfriend. The guy who called her The Other Argent whose name was Stiles which she found out about it from Allison the last time, walked over to Scott with Allison by his side.

“It’s just another life-threatening conversation with your dad.” As Scott was talking to Allison, Stiles was looking around to see if he could help Scott out, playing with the ropes that were holding him from his legs. He looked at Allison to ask for help but Scott had different plans. He cut the rope with his claws and fell down on his feet. “Thanks” he said, looking at them. He was smiling a little. “But I think I got it.” Scott’s voice tone made Stiles roll his eyes at him but even if he didn’t, his voice when he talked back at Scott definitely did.

When Scott and the others started to walk towards to the house that Stella was hiding in, she stepped back as she started biting her lip. She got out of the house before anybody saw her and headed towards to the main road where she could get to the Argent mansion.

She knew it was all she could learn tonight.

She headed to her house. Found her room’s window, climbed up. She put her gun back to its place in the suitcase and lay down on the bed. Before she closed her eyes and dived into a sleep with nightmares like every other night, she couldn’t help but think about her cousin, Allison.

When she woke up in the morning, it was almost 9 AM so Stella knew Allison has already left for school. She opened her sleepy eyes and just stayed there in her, stared at the ceiling for almost 10 minutes because even though she was a really energic person, it was so hard for her to get out of the bed today.

Today was her mother’s funeral and Stella wasn’t sure if she was ready for today. A stupid voice inside her was telling Stella that she wasn’t dead, she was somehow alive but even Stella knew that was non-sense. She knew it was the little kid in her that she never let out who she didn’t want her mother to die. She locked her in, shut her quiet because despite of everything, it wasn’t just a funeral day for Stella. It was going to be the day where she could finally start to learn more about the supernatural world that they were living in and the family she was part of.

So, she forced to push herself out of the bed. She took a deep breath and headed for her suitcases. She grabbed her jeans and a black t-shirt to put on and when she was all dressed up, she put her long hair in a ponytail, applied a soft makeup not to look like a ghost and then as she looked at herself in the mirror, she took a deep breath.

She headed for the staircase and quickly went downstairs. She was meant to get inside the kitchen to grab something to eat before she hit the road but had to force her feet to stop underneath her because as she was getting closer, she heard her uncle and aunt talking. She rested her shoulder against the wall right next to the door to the kitchen in an angle where no one could see her. She pressed her lips together into a straight line on her face and started eavesdropping just like she would do in New York. As she listened to them, she realized it wasn’t just a normal conversation between them. It was an argument and as she kept eavesdropping which was her best way to find out about things, she actually found out who they were arguing over.

“Are we really gonna tell _her_?” Victoria curiously questioned, just the moment Stella started listening on them. The young Argent couldn’t help but frown as she noticed the emphasizing in her sentence. At first, she thought they were talking about Allison but then she realized, it wasn’t her.

They were arguing over Stella.

“We have to tell her and she has to start her training” Chris responded with a sharp tone of voice which brought a soft smile on Stella’s face. Her uncle was one of the few people in this family that she trusted with everything. He was one of the few people who knew how smart actually Stella was. He was one of the few people who were always there for her and she didn’t know what she would do without him.

“She is 16!” Victoria argued, shouting but keeping her voice low so that the girl she knew who was at home wouldn’t hear them, not knowing she was actually listening to them as she was trying fight off the urge to roll her eyes when she heard what Victoria said. Chris could see Stella but Victoria probably refused to see her. She was in the part of the family where they could only see was criminal. She saw the drinking and the partying. She loved her and adored her but she never trusted her when Chris helped her. 

But Stella also knew if it was up to Victoria, Allison would still be in the dark from all of these.

“So was Allison” Chris answered back. He stopped to calm down and then continued. “You know the world we are living in, Victoria. She doesn’t know what’s going on around her but everybody does. Today she is going to walk out that door and attend something she doesn’t want to because her mother did something she wasn’t supposed to do.” He paused to catch a breath and when he continued again, his voice was a little raised up, a little bit harsher. “She needs to know how to protect herself.”

Victoria couldn’t help herself but laugh sarcastically. “Do you think Gerard hasn’t taught her anything all those years?” she asked. Even when Stella couldn’t see her, she just knew that her aunt rolled her eyes at Chris. “If we did what Kate did, Allison probably would’ve finished her training twice already. While Kate was helping us out here and there, Gerard looked after Stella. Do you really-”

Chris interrupted his wife. “He only took care of the last four years” he reminded. “I was the one who looked after her and even then, that doesn’t change anything Victoria.” His voice was focused. He was determined to tell everything to Stella whether his wife agreed or not. He knew Gerard gave her gun training and a way to protect herself but he also knew nobody told Stella about this life. “She is going to live with us now. We can’t do everything undercover.” He took a breath. “Besides… she is an Argent. Just like the rest of us. Just like Allison… She deserves to know the family secret.”

“One part of her is an Argent” Victoria reminded this time, sharp as a knife. She loved her niece but there were some facts to be considered when it came to stuff like that. She shook her head and kept her gaze on Chris. “Her father-”

Victoria got interrupted once again by her husband. That only made Stella more confused and frown. She thought they didn’t know who her father was. She kept on listening, hearing her uncle’s response to this. “We don’t know who is her father, remember” Chris warned Victoria, almost in a way that he knew who he was and he knew so much more but he didn’t give away as he kept looking at his wife. Stella breathed in a silence breath and closed her eyes. “Even if we did, it wouldn’t change a thing.”

Stella didn’t hide any longer. She opened her eyes back and with confidence, she walked into the kitchen. Yes, she wanted to know who her father was but at the moment, in a day like this, she felt like she wasn’t able to handle it. She put a smile on her face and looked at Chris and Victoria standing around the island in the kitchen. “Hello, my only family,” she greeted them. Her mood of the day brought a smile on Chris’s face while Victoria eyed Stella as she continued with a fake joy that was believable, noticing that they were all in their funeral clothes. “How is your morning?”

“You look okay” Chris softly responded. He watched her nod but then as he continued, he felt a little guilty to bust her fake bubble. “Sorry to be the salt in the wound but, Stella, you should get ready for the funeral.”

Hearing her uncle, she frowned as she looked up at him who was getting himself a coffee from the coffee machine. “You told me I can pass it up if I wasn’t ready” she reminded but it sounded more like a question. Chris softly nodded while Victoria left the kitchen, causing him to roll his eyes at her attitude. He looked at his niece, handing her the cup that was full of coffee. Stella reached out for the cup that she knew she needed, still frowning at her uncle but didn’t forget to murmur softly. “Thank you.”

“I know sweetheart but your grandpa asked you to come” he explained. Stella had nothing to other than nodding. As she walked towards the stairs with her coffee in her hands, couldn’t help but roll her eyes. He was still controlling her life and she hated that. Because she knew if Gerard, her grandpa, hadn’t asked for it, no one could force her to go to that funeral. But after all those years and recent events involved, she’s learned never go against his words.

At least not for the moment.

As she predicted, there were lots of paparazzis at the cemetery due to it being Kate Argent’s funeral. They picked Allison up from school and drove directly to the Beacon Hills graveyard where the funeral was going to happen. Stella reached for Allison’s hand as they were walking side by side. It was a way of them saying I am here for you. Kate was someone important for the both of them.

Stella had some hard time back at the house getting ready. She teared up a little bit then put her strong face back on and then went downstairs to get out of the house. But, apparently, she wasn’t the only one who had a hard time because she saw Allison’s face when they picked her up. It wasn’t an easy day for her. They both looked so tired. That was why as Chris was holding onto Stella, Victoria was holding her daughter to help them keep on walking.

They were saving them from the flashes of the cameras and the rats of paparazzies. “Mrs. Argent, can we get a few words?” Stella heard a voice saying.

“Just a few words!” Another one said. “Just a few words Ms. Argent!” Finally, when they passed the red barrier, sheriff opened his hands to keep them behind it. Stella could still hear few words but she felt so angry and empty being here to care about all those bastards begging them for a story.

That’s why she wasn’t really following what was happening around her.

“I knew this was a bad idea” Chris said, he was pretty pissed. Stella knew exactly whose idea was it and found herself getting angrier at her grandfather more by the second.

Allison, squeezed her cousin’s hand more, feeling her anger but not understanding or knowing the real reason behind it.

“Well, it wasn’t my idea” Victoria responded, blaming Chris. Stella couldn’t even find the power to smile at Allison’s little gesture. She looked like her head was full of thoughts the way Allison actually had but despite that, Stella really had nothing. It was blank. She was looking at the ground as she kept walking and was unable to think about anything.

“I tried telling him.” His voice was sharp as a knife, telling off his wife and how he was blaming his father for everything. “But he insisted on making a point of it” he continued. Stella knew they were talking about her grandfather who was also the person who forced her to come here.

Victoria continued. “Well, if he insisted, then he can deal with this when he gets here.” Allison looked at her mother, looking like she just woke up from a nap. It was the first movement since she held Stella’s hand.

Allison and Kate had different relationship. Stella knew deep down, her mother wanted her to be just like Allison. Her mother was the one who told Allison about the whole supernatural world while she was the one who kept Stella in the dark and explained nothing.

Allison, lifting her head up, looked over her shoulder. She had a worried face on like she was waiting for someone to come but at the same time she didn’t want that person to come. But before anyone noticing, she looked at her mother. “Who gets here?” she asked curiously.

Victoria decide not to answer her daughter, instead she pointed the chair, telling both girls to sit down.

Even when they sat down, Stella and Allison were still holding hands.

They both needed it.

When Stella heard someone saying “Christopher” few inches away from her, she raised her head to look at the man who was walking towards her uncle. It’s been a week since the last time she saw her grandfather and considering she was living with him since she was 12, it was a pretty long time.

“Gerard” Chris welcomed back, letting her father hug him. As soon as Gerard finished greeting Chris and condoled him, he hugged Victoria next. After her, it was Allison’s time. “Do you remember me?” he asked, looking down at his other granddaughter that he was a little distant with because the more time Stella spent with Gerard, the more Allison didn’t. 

Allison nodded softly. 

“Considering I haven’t seen you since you were 3, I don’t suppose I can assume you’d call me grandpa” Gerard continued, seeing her soft head nod and smile. “If it’s comfortable, call me Gerard for the time being...” He had a soft and sincere smile on his face but for the first time in forever Stella found herself not believing him. Gerard had an important place in her lips. She’s never said anything or admitted anything but her grandpa was the one who looked after her for the last four years and even then, Kate would drop her off there if she was in New York and Stella would spend her time with her grandparents. Even though he was one of the lead people who kept telling her lies as long as Stella knew herself but when her mother wasn’t around Gerard was the one who was there for her, who told bedtime stories. Of course, he had an important place in her life but after everything that’s happened, Stella only felt anger towards Gerard and nothing else. “… But I’d prefer grandpa.” As Allison was smiling, Gerard already started walking towards Stella. As she was thinking about their last encounter, she pushed herself to stand up.

_**** As she was checking her bags, she heard a knock on her door and with reflex, she straightened up and looked at her grandpa who was watching her, laying against the door, getting ready to speak. “I know I’ve put you through a lot in the last week but we still can go together, you know” old man said, following Stella walk around in the room with his blue eyes. Stella looked at her grandpa for a split second and went back to packing immediately, rolling her eyes. “It would make more sense.”_

_“To you, maybe” Stella murmured, knowing he was going to hear her. She gently put her SDA suitcase down on the floor and looked directly at her grandpa’s face. She knew why he was offering to drive together and that only pissed her off more. “But to me, never.”_

_“Look, if you don’t want to live in Beacon Hills-”_

_Stella interrupted her grandpa really fast that Gerard stood in shock for a while but pulled himself back quickly. “And what?” she angrily questioned, straightened her back. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked at her grandpa, raising her eyebrows. “Do you think I want to stay and live a prison life? Keep staying in the dark? Do you really think this is what I want?” She shook her head. “My issue is not with me being sent off to Beacon Hills. I’ve lived there for 7 years. I can do it for the rest of my life.” She took a deep breath. “If you don’t know what’s my actual problem, then maybe you are my problem grandpa, what do you say?” She scoffed, shaking her head and looking at him. “New York is the last place I want to be right now. And if you ask me why, just think about the last week.” ****_

“You okay, honey?” Stella got out of the memory lane as soon as she heard her grandpa. Old man was standing right in front of her, looking directly at her brown doe eyes. Stella chose to nod instead of speaking to confirm her grandfather. Gerard knew exactly what that meant. “You know, Argents have to be ready for anything.”

Stella couldn’t help her sarcastic laugh. She couldn’t believe it was just about Stella coming to this funeral but she didn’t expose him either. “Maybe” she answered with a sharp whisper. “But do you think, a kid has to be ready to bury their mother? I don’t think so.” As Stella was standing up against her grandpa, maybe for the first time in forever, her arms were crossed in front of her chest.

Gerard had a soft smile on his face. “We’d talk about this another time.”

As Stella sat down, she parted her lips. “Well, I’d rather not.” During their talk, Allison looked at her right. It looked like she was looking at Stella and Gerard but Stella knew it wasn’t it. That’s why when Gerard left her alone. _Thank God,_ she thought and then looked at the direction her cousin was looking at under her sleeve. She immediately saw Scott and Stiles, hiding behind a statue. Scott waved at Allison softly, making her smile. Stella appreciated his presence and knew it was for moral support but couldn’t help but think how stupid it was for him to be there.

This place was full of hunters.

Stella’s phone started buzzing only few minutes after the funeral. Everyone except for Chris and Gerard was gone back to their homes, and Stella got her permission and walked over to her car. She was going to drive for a while, clear her head. That’s what she told to her uncle and having her full custody now and knowing she didn’t want to be here today, he agreed with her plan. She was grateful because that way she was going to be around without even being around. She was going to find out more.

She snapped away from her thoughts when she heard the police radio that she hacked the last time she was here so she could hear every report through her phone. Knowing it was a criminal act, she probably should have done that but Stella didn’t care. She did the same thing in New York and it was pretty useful.

She wasn’t listening to everything anyway. Even if she did…

It wasn’t her first rodeo.

“4-5-1 Adam.” Stella frowned, hearing a deputy’s voice as he announced a traffic accident.

“I didn’t copy that. Did you say 4-5-1 Adam?” sheriff asked through his walkie talkie.

“They were taking a heart attack victim. But on the way to the hospital, something hit ‘em.”

“Someone hit the ambulance?”

“Copy that” the deputy confirmed. “I’m standing in front of it right now. Something got in the back. There’s blood everywhere. And I mean everywhere.”

“All right, unit 4, what’s your 20?”

“Route 5 and post. I swear, I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

“Alright, take it easy. I’m on my way.”

When the police radio ended right there, Stella immediately started driving to route 5. Considering she ignored all of the traffic rules, it was a good thing all the police were pretty busy. And when she arrived at the destination, she saw the ambulance lights first. The vehicle was standing on the side of the road. Like the police said, there were blood everywhere. Stella wondered who did it. Somehow, she knew it wasn’t Lydia. She didn’t even think she was a werewolf. It was just…

It had nothing to with Lydia.

She closed her eyes, started to count to ten. It was way of controlling her anxiety and anger. When she was at 7, she felt like she saw someone in her mind. A face… She didn’t know who that was but it was definitely not Lydia.

She opened her eyes back with deep and fast breathes, looked around. She wasn’t going to go through this shit again. She started to walk into the darkest parts of the woods. Her hand was on her gun, being cautious but then all of a sudden, with someone’s voice, she pulled her gun so fast and pointed at the source.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Derek asked, making Stella to turn to his direction with a gun pointing at him. Derek’s voice was firm and questioning.

“Look, you can’t be good and then bad, okay? You gotta make up your mind” Stella reacted, rolling her eyes. One moment he was helping her, the other he was questioning her.

Derek raised his eyebrows, pointing at the gun Stella was holding at him with his head. “You’re telling me?” he answered back sarcastically with a question, making Stella to realize what she was doing. She rolled her eyes once again as she put the gun back to her belt.

She took a deep breath in before she answered to Derek. “It was just a reflex, dumbass” she said. As she gave out the breath she took, she couldn’t help the sarcastic smile. “Look Derek, I might not be a hunter. I might be in the dark thanks to my wonderful family but I am an Argent who is having a gun training since she was 8, okay?” She put her hand in her pocket, shrugged. “Besides I am just trying to help my cousin out. You may not have a great relationship with the Argents and believe me, neither do I but I am not a threat to you, to anyone.” She stopped for while. She was nervous. “But again…” She didn’t know if she should say what she wanted to say. Argents were her family after all. But they were lying to her. Was she going to get back at them? Was this going to be her revenge?

“But again what?” Derek pushed. The comfy feeling that she was feeling towards Derek won over her. She hated this. She only had few conversations with the guy and her mother burned his whole alive.

But still she couldn’t fight the feeling.

“I am not the one you should be afraid of. My grandfather Gerard-” she started but Derek raised his hand, telling her to shut up. And then without any notice or explanation, he left. Stella stopped in her spot for a while in shock but then angrily exhaled from her nose. “Yes, amazing talk. Can’t wait for the next one, dumbass!” She rolled her eyes, looked around as she inhaled a deep breath and as she kept mumbling, walked in the woods. “Yes, I, of course, shush the person who wants to help me and leave them in the middle of nowhere. Nice work.”

When she found Derek again, he was with Scott hiding behind a tree. She could see another werewolf hanging down few yards away from them. Her uncle and grandpa and some others were around him, chatting slowly.

Quickly she put her cap and hoodie on and hid behind another tree, she could hear the conversations almost like they were next to her which was weird but she didn’t put much thought into it.

As her uncle shook the electrical device which Stella was referring to them as light sabers, caused it to make a sound and the werewolf to growl at him. When he put the lightsaber on his stomach, it made the werewolf scream in pain. They were trying him to turn back to his human form.

Then she heard her uncle. “Who are you?” he asked. “What are you doing here?”

“Nothing!” the foreign werewolf answered. “Nothing, I swear!”

“You’re not from around here, are you?” Chris asked. He raised his voice, the werewolf confirmed. “Are you?!”

He said he was here to find the alpha. “Look I didn’t do anything. I didn’t hurt anyone! No one living. He wasn’t alive in the ambulance. He wasn’t, I swear!” In that moment Stella realized it was his face who she saw in her mind. Young girl held her breath and her lips parted as she kept looking at the werewolf.

“Gentlemen!” She pulled herself together when she heard Gerard’s high voice and hold on to the body of the tree tight. She knew he had no mercy when it came to things like this and she also knew if he was here, things were gonna go bad. “Take a look at the rare sight. You wanna tell them what we’ve caught? An Omega. The Lone wolf. Possibly kicked out of his own pack. Or the survivor of a pack that was hunted down. Maybe even murdered. And possibly alone by his own choice.” Her uncle had disgust on his face but Stella knew it was more towards Gerard than the werewolf because he was also aware what was happening. “Certainly not a wise choice.” Stella’s eyes found Scott and Derek. As Scott was looking at the things that were happening with fear, Derek was observing. After a while his green eyes located Stella who was looking at them. Stella moved her lips to apologize to Derek. She needed Derek to know not all Argents were like that. She needed that for herself… For Allison…

When Stella looked back at her grandfather, she saw that he was holding a sword. She had to cover her mouth not to react through her reflexes. “Because as I am about to demonstrate an Omega barely survives” Gerard continued and he pulled back, sliced the werewolf in half through his waist. Stella held herself not to scream. It wasn’t a scream that would come out during a scary movie. It would have been a scream like the last time, after her hallucination and as Derek was explaining Scott something with his whole intensity, all Stella was trying to do was to hold that scream back.

“We have a code” Chris reminded, reached to his father with one big step.

“Not when they murder my daughter.” He stacked the sword into the ground and looked at Chris. “No code. Not anymore. From now on, these things are just bodies waiting to be cut in half. Are you listening? Because I don’t care if they are wounded and weak. Or seemingly harmless begging for their life with the promise that they will never, ever hurt anyone. Or some desperate, lost soul with no idea what they are getting into. We find them. We kill them. We kill them all.”

After spending one night in her car, Stella was sure that she should find a better place to spend the night. At least for her health... She couldn’t get enough sleep but it may have been because of the things she’s seen last night.

She climbed out of her car, looked around. Her car was parked in a place where nobody knew or rarely pass through which was great because nobody knew Stella was still in town but it was still risky. So, she had to find a place more secret, more comfortable.

Especially more comfortable…

She took a deep breath, checking her gun if it was still where she left it. She didn’t have any werewolf bullets or any kind. She didn’t need to. If someone were to attack her, she had other ways like her arrow and crossbow. Even though her grandfather hasn’t explained her the supernatural world, he taught her how to use a crossbow. He taught her how to protect herself. Without any explanation, he gave her the Argent training.

Her grandfather was one of the few people who was, used to be, there for her. She’s lived with her grandfather for years and last night… Stella couldn’t erase the image of last night from her mind. She wasn’t a cry baby; she wasn’t getting sick with the sight of blood but the code was the only thing preventing them to be killers. It was the only line between saving people and murdering. And last night was… She took another deep breath in as she brushed her hair back. She knew what she had to do.

She had to find Derek.

She found him at the Hale House like usual. When he saw Stella walking towards him, Derek felt the anger rising making Stella to put her hands in the air telling him she was innocent. “I tried to warn you, you know” she reminded, raising her eyebrows, placing a sarcastic expression her face. “But you just took off. Which means you can’t really blame me, dumbass.”

Derek rolled his eyes at the little ‘nickname’ Stella’s been calling him. It seemed to be a classic gesture around Stella now. “So, you’re telling as a hunter, you are on our side, on werewolves’ side?” Derek’s voice was sarcastic yet pretty annoying to Stella who was trying so hard to hold the urge to roll her eyes. She also seemed to be doing this around him as well.

“I am trying to say to you I am on no one’s side but apparently I am failing miserably.” Stella took a deep breath to calm down as she closed her eyes. “To others, I’m just a girl who knows nothing and was sent off to here because she got arrested.” When she opened them back and looked at Derek, she saw how carefully he was listening to her. It was like he was trying to see right through her, trying to understand the meaning behind her actions. Stella couldn’t help but think if he was feeling back the trust that she felt for him. “Look, Derek. I’d do anything to protect my family, and my family is Allison and Chris. Gerard passed the line there. Even my uncle is aware of that.”

“As far as I’ve heard, your folks think you are in some place else, outside of Beacon Hills” Derek tried to change subject.

Stella nodded, put her hands on her jeans’ back pocket and moved on her spot softly. “I need to get my shit together after the sudden death of my mom. At least that’s what I’ve told them. I just want to know more before they even noticing me.” She moved her eyebrows. “All I need is a place to stay in without no one knowing I’m here” she said, whispering, thinking. She could feel Derek’s eyes on her, eyeing her.

But right she was about to continue, she heard Derek’s voice. “There is a place” he said after thinking for a while. Stella raised her eyebrows, looking at him. “No one knows except for someone. Someone named Isaac Lahey. My Beta.” Stella knotted, trying to understand why Derek was helping her all of a sudden. “You can stay there.”

“Why are you helping me?” Stella whispered, losing no time. 

“You are a lot more different than the other hunters I’ve met” he said, Stella couldn’t help but notice the little smile on Derek’s face. “I trust you, Argent. Don’t you waste it.” He teasingly tilted his head and continued. “Besides, you could come in handy.”

Knowing how hard it was for Derek to say that, all Stella could do was nod.

The minute she arrived in the little ‘bunker’ which was some old subway station, someone attacked her from behind but thanks to her grandpa, it was a piece of cake for her to actually fight back and won it.

She took out her gun and pointed at the werewolf. “Isaac?” she guessed. There was a curly haired kid who had green t-shirt and jeans on. Stella was sure they were in the same age but she wasn’t completely sure. His eyes were glowing yellow, his fangs were out.

When he roared, Stella rolled her eyes at Isaac’s overreaction.

“Who are you?” Isaac asked curiously. Stella introduced herself. Told him her name, how she was Allison’s cousin and told him not to panic since she was here through Derek. “So what? You’re telling me Derek’s bringing hunters here now?”

“For the last time, Isaac, I am not a hunter. All right? I’m just protecting myself.” Stella knew she had to do more than for Isaac to be comfortable around her but, all of a sudden, she realized something, making her knot. Isaac wasn’t nervous because Stella was a hunter. It was something else. “Also, I am very good at body language. Why so nervous, wolfy?” Isaac laughed sarcastically showing Stella there was no way he was telling her, turned around but right before he could ever step forward; Stella held her arm, making him to look at her again. His eyes were back to normal now, they were green.

Isaac laughed again. “You know, a guy usually does this gesture and it usually ends up with both people making out” he said, raising one eye and looking at Stella playfully. Stella smiled back, making his arm twist in the wrong way, making him growl in pain.

“When someone’s cocky, it usually ends up with me hurting them.” Stella took a breath, letting go of his arm. Isaac rolled his eyes at her but didn’t do anything else as Stella kept talking more calmly now. “Look Isaac, I know you have no reason to trust me and to be honest, neither do I to trust you but we both live in Beacon Hills now and I have to know what’s going on.”

Isaac looked at Stella before telling her what happened last night with his dad. He mentioned how a lizard kind of creature murdered his father after their argument. And when he left school without saying anything else, Stella kept standing there with millions of questions in her mind.

Stella thought to herself for a while, sitting on a chair, resting her cheek on her palm. A lizard? She gave out a loud and a deep breath. She was in here to know more about this werewolf world. She knew there were lots of creatures out there but a lizard thingy? Well, that was new.

She reached out to her phone and she called the one person who she was communicating the most for the last couple of days. It only took few seconds for him to answer her call. “Derek, you need to come here right now.” She hung up the phone before saying anything else. She could actually just text him as well but she just wanted to be a dick to Derek at the time. She just wanted to make him work and come here with no solid reason.

Yes, she was just bored and annoyed with all of these.

Besides he was the one who left her in the woods middle of their conversation after all. She knew he deserved this. 

As she was waiting, she reached for the SDA suitcase; looked at her guns. There was a black notebook in the hidden part. This was a copy of her grandpa’s online bestiary. Most hunters would call that their ‘journal’ but Stella preferred to call it a bestiary. But there was this thing that there were few pages, maybe a lot of pages, missing because she could only get some of it without getting caught and as she translated the old latin to English, she wrote them again. And now she was just hoping the creature Isaac mentioned wasn’t in one of the missing pages.

She ruffled through the pages.

“Damn it, of course it was on those pages” she mumbled to herself as she put the notebook back to its place. It was the time she felt Derek’s presence and looked at him.

“What’s so urgent?” was the first question to leave his mouth. Stella rolled her eyes at his grumpiness. Closed her suitcase and straightened her back as she looked at him.

“Isaac told me about the-”

Derek interrupted her. “Yes, I know” he said, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “A supernatural creature who looks like a lizard… Do you have any idea what that is?” As everyone, Derek was curious about this creature.

“Nope, not even a clue. I thought you do.” She took a deep breath. “Apparently you don’t.” She stopped. She looked around as she started to think. She may have looked stupid but she knew it wasn’t the case at all. She was really smart. She looked back at Derek. “Did you bite anyone other than Isaac?” she asked.

Derek frowned. “Yes, Jackson Whittemore” he explained, making Stella to create a v between her eyes. Jackson… She’s met Jackson the last time she was in town. “But it didn’t work. His body is still fighting against the bite so I’d say don’t waste your time.” Stella nodded but even Derek could see she was totally spaced.

Meanwhile Stella thought about the time she met Jackson Whittemore last year.

_**** Young girl rolled her eyes and sighed as she kept watching the road when she felt a movement right next to her. When she looked to her left, she saw someone who had brown hair, muscled body and green eyes. It was the guy who everyone was talking about, Jackson Whittemore who was the captain of the Lacrosse team._

_“Considering how everybody knows how rich your family is, you waiting for someone to come and pick you up is probably not an option” Stella commented being the first one to talk after a short silence. She felt kind of uncomfortable with Jackson just being there and not saying anything._

_He laughed. “No, I came here to offer you a ride if you need to be picked up.” Young man stopped, making Stella to roll her eyes. “Besides Argent family is pretty rich, too.”_

_“If you are talking about the fact that we are one of the richest families in the world…” Stella smiled, looking Jackson with side eyes who was smirking. Then moved up and down on her feet and she let her hands out of her pocket. “Yes, Argents’ wealth is pretty great. But since I am only here for visit purposes, I don’t have a car with me. That’s why I am waiting my wonderful mother to come and pick me up but…” She looked at the clock on her phone. “She is already late.”_

_“Do you wanna argue about the wealth of our families or you want me to just drive you where you wanna go?”_

_Stella could feel her patience going low for her mother with every passing second and also was very happy to hear Jackson’s offer. “Stella” she introduced herself and then smiled. “If you insist. I’d rather use the Whittemores than wait for the Argents.”_

_She heard Jackson laugh as she passed her and walked towards to the Porsche which she knew whose it was. ****_

In all fairness, that little car ride was actually pretty entertaining. Jackson and Stella had so many things in common and it made both of them to become friend. Okay, friend was a strong term for their relationship.

 _Acquaintance_ …

Yes, a word to describe Jackson would probably be acquaintance.

Stella knotted when she saw Derek was headed to the door. “Where to?” she curiously questioned.

“I have to check on Isaac” Derek answered, not getting into detailed.

Stella nodded, confirming him. “I’ll be here. I can’t go anywhere anyway” she said before Derek left her alone. “Argents has eyes and ears everywhere. Also, a lot of men walking around, reporting. Way more now since Gerard is in town.” She rolled her eyes. “All I can do for now is look for the creature that Isaac told to me about.” After Derek nodded, confirming her and then leaving, Stella bit her lip as she brushed her hair back. She grabbed the bestiary from the suitcase and went into the subway that had no other half. It was obviously not working but the seats were comfortable enough. She started thinking to herself. “Jackson” she murmured. She knew where he lived. Today was the full moon. It was worth a shot. 

She looked at her handwriting on the first page. _The shape you take reflects the person you are..._ She sighed as she formed a plan in her head.

When the clock hit 6 PM, Stella put on her hoodie and her cap and get out of her hiding spot as she headed to the Whittemore Mansion.

There were two people talking at the top of the stairs. One of them was Jackson but Stella didn’t know who the other person was supposed to be. She hid behind the bushes. Jackson was telling the guy as she put something in the kid’s pocket. They talked for a while but it was impossible for Stella to hear them from where she was standing.

After their little conversation, Jackson took the camera from the kid and as the kid started to walk downstairs, Jackson went inside.

The kid stopped in the middle of the stairs, looked at the direction Stella was in. It was like he sensed she was there, listening. Or he was just looking around, checking.

Both of the choices had equal possibilities.

He shook his, walked to his car. He got into the car but didn’t start the car. It didn’t move.

“Oh, God!” Stella murmured but if it was a more comfortable place, she would probably scream. If Stella was right and Jackson would turn, his body would eventually stop fighting with Derek’s werewolf venom, this was going to be his first time. He was gonna be uncontrollable. He was going to be a monster. She had her lightsaber and bullets. Yes, she already had a gun who was a ‘gift’ from her grandfather but she stole the lightsaber from the basement. Not like they were gonna notice it.

Stella didn’t want to kill anyone. She cared about the code more than the other Argents.

She took a deep breath in, threw her head back to see the dark sky. She always hated the stakeouts. They were a waste of time. Stella always liked the action part of the deal.

It wasn’t her thing to just stay and watch. 

And all of a sudden, her phone rang. As she cursed herself for the fact that it wasn’t on silence, she was the caller ID. It was Allison. She picked up the phone quickly, making ringtone to stop and put it on her ear. “Hey Allison!” she said with her normal but a little bit lower voice. She still had someone inches away from her, in the car and that kid wasn’t supposed to hear Stella. She wished he’d just drive away.

“Stella” said Allison with a voice that shows she was obviously smiling and happy to hear her cousin’s voice. “How are you, where are you, why haven’t you call?”

Allison kept asking questions after questions as Stella smiled, still watching the house. “I’ve driven all day. When I got to the motel, I was pretty exhausted. I’m sorry” she answered, trying not to lie. She hated lying to Allison even though she knew, she lied to her about this whole supernatural world thing as well but still… She was very careful with her words. “Right now, I am middle of the woods.” Her back was facing the woods which wasn’t technically a lie. “So, I don’t have a good signal. Can I call you back later?”

Allison confirmed her, hanging up. Stella silenced her phone as she sighed and without thinking about anything else, she focused on the big modern white house.

She thought it was gonna take longer than that but when a reptile crawled out from the second floor’s window, Stella startled. It only took few seconds for her to calm down as she hated that she was right. She hated the fact that the monster was Jackson. And what was worse? She knew what the creature was. It was a research where she did when she was obsessed with mythologies. 

A Kanima…

She didn’t remember much about it but she knew its venom had paralyzing affects.

Kanima got closer to the car. Stella’s hand went to her gun. It had no werewolf bullet whatsoever but it could help Stella to protect herself and the kid but she wanted to wait. She was curious what the Kanima was gonna do. It didn’t look like it was going to attack. Something was definitely weird.

But it just raised its lizard hand and put it on the glass. Stella frowned as she watched but then Kanima went on motion and few seconds later it wasn’t there anymore.

“Damn, that was fast!” Stella cursed when she lost the Kanima again. She was pretty sure she ran for almost 5 miles before she realized there was nothing else to do.

She went back to her hiding spot. At least she knew they were dealing with a Kanima and that was Jackson but she wasn’t going to tell that to anyone just yet. It was gonna be a secret till Stella was sure they weren’t going to kill him. Yes, Jackson was a self-loathed bully and a bastard but even though Stella didn’t talk to him a lot after their little car ride, he was the only one who didn’t call her ‘The Other Argent’ when they first met. He was a bully who treated Stella right.

Stella loved her cousin; she was the first and the only person who she admitted she loved her but she always hated the idea of living under someone else’s shadow even when it was her cousin. It was something she always had to deal with, with her mother. Even in New York…

That was why Jackson’s supernatural identity was going to stay as something only Stella knew. She wasn’t going to tell anyone until she figured out a way to save him.

Couple of days after that day went pretty calm and normal for Stella. She has heard the Kanima killed a hunter but didn’t leave the subway station to learn more about it and take care of it without killing Jackson. Her only entertainment was talking to Isaac who was not going to school since the day he escaped from the police station. He also wasn’t staying in his as well. They got along pretty well. They both trusted each other.

Her only problem was this: Erica... Derek’s latest Beta...

Since she was just turned and knew about the hunters, she didn’t want to listen to Stella. It wouldn’t matter how much Stella tried to explain herself and after a while there was just a mutual hate. The other day she practically tried to kill Stella with her eyes but Stella didn’t really care. If she had to, she wouldn’t hesitate to put a werewolf bullet between her eyes.

“It’s really suspicious, you know, when even Erica goes to school and you are still on the run, Lahey” Stella commented, grinning. She knew exactly why Isaac was ditching school. Police was accusing him for his father’s death but Stella knew that Isaac wouldn’t do anything that makes his eyes change from ambe to blue, even if it didn’t look like it.

“Well, I’m a fugitive, remember?” Isaac sarcastically reminded.

Stella let out a small laughter, parting her lips to talk back. “Yeah, I know the feeling.” Isaac laughed as he kept looking at Stella’s SDA suitcase. As he took out a weapon, Stella closed the book in front of her and walked to Isaac, took the weapon between his hands. “I don’t want you to hurt yourself, Isaac. You better not play with these.” Stella bit the inner side of her cheek not to laugh as she turned back to her research about the Kanima.

“You still got nothing, huntress?”

When Erica’s annoying voice echoed in the empty lot, Stella got back on her feet and looked at her with a huge but sarcastic smile. “You know, Erica, you are gonna need more than eyes and words to kill me. You being a little werewolf doesn’t mean you have the talent to kill me” she responded, making Erica to shift into her werewolf self. Her eyes were glowing, her fangs and claws were out.

“She’s right” Derek said, walking in. Erica turned her head in anger to look at him. “She’d got you squirm in pain even before you take a step. You don’t even realize she’s holding a gun and a crossbow with each hand.” Stella smirked, raising her hands to show the weapons that she’s holding to Erica. Of course, she wouldn’t _kill_ Erica. But she’d be pretty happy to show a newbie not to mess with someone who was training since she was 8.

After a while, it was just Derek, Isaac and Stella in the subway. When Erica went to school, leave the tree alone, Derek looked at Stella. He knew she wasn’t going to say anything when Erica was around.

Both hated each other.

“Did you find something?” Derek asked, making Stella to close her books up and sigh as she looked back at Derek.

“All I know what the hell is this creature” Stella said, keeping every other information to herself. She didn’t tell Jackson was the Kanima, Kanima wasn’t alone and seeking for a master and that so-called master was probably the guy she saw in front of Jackson’s house that day. She kept it from everybody.

Even Isaac didn’t know because Stella knew Derek was reckless. He would kill and ask questions later and she didn’t want that.

“So? What are we dealing with?” Isaac asked curiously. This creature has killed his father. Yes, his dad didn’t treat him right, in fact he treated him as shit. He would lock him in a box in the basement and more just because he had a low grade or didn’t clean his room. But still, his father was dead because of it and he had every right to know.

He could go and thank, maybe.

“Kanima” Stella announced in one breath. “According to Isaac’s description, we are dealing with a Kanima.”

The other day in the afternoon, Stella tried to learn more through books and the web until she was left alone in the subway station. But when she was alone, she thought she could give a break. It has been a long week after all.

She took out her phone and earphones and went into the subway, took a seat. She put her earphones on and shuffle her playlist, closed her eyes. As the first few chords to a Kansas song filled her ears, she tried to ease her mind. She was trying not to think but it was a little bit hard for Stella do because as she was trying to think, she was also thinking she was about to lose her mind and that freaked her out.

She opened her eyes, thinking she heard a voice but instead of seeing the subway that she was supposed to be in, she saw the woods. She was no longer sitting in the subway, she was sitting on the leaves, on the ground. She took out her earphones, put them in her pocket and alongside her heart which was beating like crazy, she stood up. The smell, the trees and the leaves underneath her feet was the proof she was actually in the woods but she _knew_ she was still in the subway.

All this couldn’t be real.

She started walking, taking deep breathes in and giving them out. She kept walking till she saw the big house. She hesitated before she opened the door and got inside. Everything was burned down. There were ashes and burnt smell.

It was that house again. Derek’s house…

She kept walking, taking deep breathes. She was trying to calm down but she knew she was failing.

That’s when she heard the voice.

She looked at the way the voice came from and she saw a man covered in blood and ashes. He was burned like the everything in this house. His feet were naked and covered in mud. His eyes were glowing blue, just like the last hallucination.

Werewolf opened his mouth, showing his fangs and growling as he started walking towards Stella, making her to scream again. It was just as high as the last time. She could’ve sworn everyone in this little town heard her.

And, all of a sudden, she was back in the subway station again but instead of sitting inside the subway, she was standing in front of the table with a pen between her hand that was broken in half. Stella frowned and that’s when she felt the paper that she was holding with her other hand. There were a scratches of few words on it. Stella knew it was her handwriting but that’s all she knew about this whole situation.

Her breathes kept on being irregular and unhealthy for a normal person. Put the pieces of the pen back on the table and looked at the paper with frightened eyes. There were four groups of words.

_Peter Hale._

_Lydia Martin._

_The full moon._

_The Hale Fire._

“Another Beta?” Stella questioned, watching Derek walk towards her with Erica, Isaac and a guy that she didn’t know. The newbie frowned as she looked at Stella. Derek introduced him to her, telling her that Boyd was his name. Stella shrugged, looking at the new kid. “Hey, if you don’t have a problem with me, I won’t have a problem with you.”

Stella said nothing more, she kept it short because she had a terrible headache due to the hallucination. She went back to the subway, sat down and placed her head to the window. As she closed her eyes, she took a deep breath. She was pretty shaken up by the whole thing, by the hallucination she just saw.

“Derek, what was that scream?” was the question that came out from Isaac’s mouth made Stella open her eyes back. Straightened up, frowned even more. Looked at Isaac and Derek through the window who were talking, they were both worried and surprised. That’s what Stella could tell. But Stella only wondered one thing. Did they really hear her scream? What was happening to her?

God, she wanted to know. _She needed to know._

“I don’t know” Derek said before he turned to look at Isaac. As he took a deep breath, his hands moved around on his beard. “But until it’s a problem, we should deal with our problem right now.” The conversation ended there but when Stella put her head back to the window, she could feel the spinning in her brain but that was not making her brain work. More or less, it was only making hear brain to fail. She still didn’t know anything about these hallucinations and she had no idea why she wrote those words on the paper.

Her hand found the paper that was gonna give her more nightmares in her pocket and squeezed it as she closed her eyes back again and hoped for a sleep.

She opened her eyes back with the sound of someone falling down really hard. She stood up and walked outside to see what was happening and with the thing she saw, she immediately started laughing. “Welcome to Derek’s doggy course. It is going to rock your world” she commented sarcastically. As Derek threw a glance at her, Erica rolled her eyes, Isaac tried to get back on his feet. Boyd was just watching them from the stairs while Isaac did that again. And again. And again. But every time he tried to attack Derek, he was catching him and throwing him back to the ground. And then Erica jumped on Derek of off the subway. She probably was thinking that she was gonna catch Derek off-guard.

Derek rolled his eyes as he started to walk around the room. “If anyone wants to try not being completely predictable?” he asked, making Stella to shoot an arrow that _almost_ got him. Derek was almost not able to get that which was surprising. Stella was human. But she got that and released that arrow twice as faster than a human but it was because she was trained. She had to be fast.

When Derek turned around to looked at her, Stella was smiling. “Like that?” she asked with a smirk on her face but without Derek even get a chance to speak, Erica got up and jumped to his lap, placing her lips on his. Stella let out a sarcastic and shocking laughter. “Or, you know, like _that_.”

Derek, grabbed her by the legs and threw her right next to Isaac. Stella couldn’t help but think how gentlemen was Derek but still laughed at Erica. She really hated the bitch.

“It’s the last time you do that” he said in an angry mood after wiping off his lips. As he kept walking towards Stella, Erica’s voice filled the room.

“Why?” she asked like Derek was the lowest of them all. Stella could consider this true but well… She knew it wasn’t. “Because I’m a Beta?”

“No, because I have someone else in mind for you” Derek said with a smile. As Boyd was still watching them Stella let another sarcastic smile out of her lips.

“I’m guessing Stiles” Stella mocked, making Erica to throw her one of her ‘famous’ _I am going to kill you_ stares. Stella shrugged, not caring about her at all, put her arrow on the table and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“Are we done?” Isaac asked, trying to get off the floor. “I got about 100 bones that need a few hours to heal.”

When Isaac sat down, Derek was asking if he was serious with his stares. He walked up towards him, crouched down next to him and told him to give him his hand. “Here?” Derek said with a voice that was obviously a lie because it was so sincere and innocent. Isaac nodded, confirming him but, all of a sudden, he grimaced with pain because Derek broke another bone. Meanwhile Stella could feel Boyd was looking at her, waiting for her to do something but what could she do? Derek was an alpha werewolf meanwhile she was just a girl with a little bit of sarcasm and gun abilities who also sees hallucinations which was scaring the crap out of her. Besides it was his pack, she had no business saying something. “101.” Derek was angry, he raised his voice. “You think I’m teaching you how to fight?” He looked around. Erica and Boyd looked pretty scared meanwhile Stella was just standing there with her arms crossed. “Look at me! I’m teaching you how to survive!” He let go off Isaac’s arm, stood up. As he just started walking towards the subway, they heard Isaac talking.

“If they want to kill us, why not now?” Isaac asked with angry voice. “What are they waiting for?”

Derek looked around before looking at Isaac. “I don’t know. But they are planning something and you, especially, know that’s not our only problem.” He looked at Boyd and Erica. “Whatever that thing is killed Isaac’s father…” he started. He obviously was keeping it from Boyd and Erica. “… I think it killed someone else last night. Until I found out what it is, you all need to learn everything that I know.” He turned back again and kept on talking. “As fast as I can teach you.” When she was right next to Stella, he leaned into her ear. “Don’t say anything to them. Isaac included.”

And walked past Stella, making her to clap her hands and looked to beaten up pack. She was just trying to make it all seem normal but not even Boyd looked like he cared. Erica and Isaac were already on the floor, trying to heal. Stella couldn’t help her sarcasm. “Well, that was fun guys. Who wants to try again?” Stella saw Boyd smiling, Erica shooting lasers from her eyes and Isaac rolling his eyes. She smirked. “No? Any of you? Well, good night then. Tomorrow, same place, same time?”

“I hate you!” she heard Isaac’s murmuring.

“Same to you, buddy” she said, turning back to the subway and sitting down. As she took a deep breath, closed her eyes and went back to sleep.

“Where are you guys going this time?” Stella asked few nights later. She felt like she needed to get out of here but she couldn’t take the chance to be seen. All she was doing was to talk to her cousin, read books, go online and think about the things she wrote on the paper. She knew she had to crack what she wrote before it was too late bu,t also, she knew was pretty messed up. She was scared.

“There is a lacrosse game at the school and we have to talk to Stiles” Derek responded with a non-pleasing smile on his face. “We have to find out what he saw at the mechanics.” Stella nodded but then with the thought of something, reached for her pocket and put out a wrapped-up paper.

It was for Scott. She was meaning to talk to him for a while now.

“It’s none of your business what’s in it but it would be amazing if you could give it to Scott” said Stella, handing the paper to him. Derek nodded, taking the paper and then leaving Stella all alone to get back to her books and computer. She could find anything new in the last few days but she couldn’t lose hope. Not yet.

It was the only thing she had right now.

“Ah fuck it” she murmured after couple of hours of being alone. She closed all of her books and put them back into her suitcase. She put her hoodie and cap on. Put one of her guns to her belt and headed to the exit. She knew her grandpa had a copy of his bestiary flash driver and as far as she knew from Allison, he was the principle of the school right now. She knew how to pick up a lock. She could do it again.

She got into her car and drove to the school. Everyone was at the field to watch the lacrosse game so the school was pretty much empty. She walked to the principle’s office with fast steps. The door was open and the key was on it. She knew if she just took it, her grandpa would understand so she walked over to his table and she crouched down. She knew there was one more copy where was hidden in a place where no one would look at. There was a place under the desk and she also knew that because she knew her grandfather. She reached to the small hidden part and took the back up flash drive.

There were probably more than these in the house as well.

“Ah, the trust issues” Stella praised smiling as she stood up. That’s when she noticed someone standing in front of the door. It was one of the students and he was looking through the keychains, trying to find something. “Ah, what the hell do you think you are doing?” Stella yelled at guy. It only took few seconds for Stella to realize it was Scott. Young man startled, looking at Stella. He knew she was familiar but he didn’t know where was it from. “I asked you what you are doing?”

Scott looked at the keychain between his hands and then looked back at Stella. “I…” He tried to explain but then narrowed his eyes, looking at her. “Stella?” Stella’s smile almost said ‘bingo’ to him as she moved her eyebrows. “But you… Allison said you were out of town.”

Stella walked towards to the door with a smile as she put the flash in her jacket’s pocket. “Do you believe everything you hear?” she questioned, tilting her head, looking at Scott. She shrugged, didn’t stop walking till she was in front of Scott. “It was a lie that I made up to find out more information about certain things, McCall, and it’s not the time for anyone, especially my family, to know I am still in town, alright? I am trusting you on not having a loose mouth?” Stella inhaled. “Also…” She exhaled. “If you learn something, anything, I’d rather you tell that to me, too.” Scott nodded, confirming her even though he had no idea what was happening but then something happened that draw both of their attention. There was a hissing sound filling the hallways. Stella widened her eyes with shock but then in a second, she was back to her normal self. Stella looked at Scott without losing time. “Now work on your Wolfy magic and tell us where they are.”

“You knew?” Scott asked, raising his eyebrows. Stella nodded but Scott also knew it was another secret that he had to keep so he focused on his listening. “In the pool.”

“You go ahead, I’ll be right there” Stella told Scott. He immediately ran towards the swimming pool and Stella went after him, closing the door behind.

Stella started to watch Scott who turned into his werewolf form from a safe point. He was trying to save Stiles and Derek who was paralyzed apparently from the pool. She knew no one was going to see her but she was in position. So that if things went wrong, she could interfere.

Scott roared at the Kanima, Kanima went towards him. Stella’s hand went to her gun but no. She wasn’t going to kill him. She repeated that. She knew Kanima killed more than few people but she knew it wasn’t his fault. It was being controlled so she wasn’t going to kill Jackson. She tried the stop the KILL order in her brain.

Kanima held Scott with its tail and threw him to the mirror. When glasses fell down broken, it hissed again. Scott grabbed a broken glass to use it as a weapon but when Kanima saw its reflection on the mirror, it escaped so fast that it took few seconds for Stella to realize what happened.

When Scott and Stiles went back to principle’s office, Stella ran to Derek and helped Erica to get him out. The venom was no longer working so Derek was okay but still needed the girls’ help to get out of school. When she saw Stiles and Scott talking over their car, Stella pointed their direction to Derek. “Go talk to them” she said. “They need to know what it is. I’ll be right here.”

Derek nodded, walking to their direction with Erica by his side. It wasn’t so far away so Stella could hear what they were talking about but also knew Stiles or Scott wasn’t able to see her because it was pretty dark.

“Is that even a language? How are we suppose to figure out what this thing is?” Scott asked, panicked. It was in ancient Latin and it was hard to figure out but Stella knew how to speak Latin. She translated every page she was able to get before Gerard busted her and took the flash drive when he noticed she got it but still did not tell her anything about this world.

“It’s called the Kanima” Derek said, stopping when they reached to those two boys.

“You knew the whole time?” Stiles asked in disbelief, amazed but in a bad way. Stella inhaled as she leaned against her car, still listening those two chaotic messes and a bitch.

“I wasn’t sure. Only when it was confused by its own reflection” Derek explained, making Stella to press her lips together and frown. She found out about the reflection part later but apparently Derek already knew that and didn’t tell her. She rolled her eyes. But then again… She knew more than everyone combined and she was keeping things to herself.

“It doesn’t know who it is.”

“Or who it is” Derek completed Scott’s sentence.

“What else do you know?” Stiles asked. Apparently, he was still bitter about Derek knowing things and not sharing them with the class.

“Stories and rumors. A shape-shifter but it’s not right” Derek explained again. “It’s like a…”

“Abomination” Stiles completed Derek’s sentence. He nodded, confirming the Stilinski kid. Stella, saw him shaking his head. Right when Derek and Erica were ready to leave, Scott stopped them.

“We need to work together on this. Maybe even tell the Argents.” It seemed like these words from Scott pissed Derek off. He asked if he trusts them or not. “Nobody trusts anyone. That’s the problem! While we’re here, arguing about who’s on what side, there’s something scarier, faster than any of us and it’s killing people and we still don’t know anything about it.”

“I know one thing.” Derek turned around and started walking towards the car where Stella was waiting for them. “I am gonna find it and I’m going to kill it.”

Stella let out a sarcastic laughter that no one could hear. No, she wasn’t going to let that happen. She knew, she thought that Jackson was still worth saving and she was going to do it whatever it took.

She was pretty furious when Erica came back to subway station with Jackson. She walked over to her with angry and fast steps. “What the hell do you think you are doing?!” But Erica didn’t listen to her and walked right pass her. As Isaac stood up and held Jackson’s other arm, Stella looked at her angrily. “What are you doing?” She yelled again but Erica just smirked as she kept looking at Stella.

“What happened to you on the night of the full moon” Derek asked. As always, he was wearing a black leather jacket and standing in the entrance of the train.

“What?” Jackson asked, not following what was happening. Then anger took over. Stella could feel that from his voice and his face. It was also obvious he was very surprised to see Stella there as well. She now had to talk to him. “Nothing. Nothing happened!”

Derek lifted his head up and looked at Jackson. “You’re lying.” He dropped the bat in his hands and put on gloves as Jackson kept talking. Now he was kind of afraid.

“No, wait. No, stop! I can prove it.” Derek looked at him, trying to wear the glove. “I taped myself.” Everyone except for Stella laughed. She only thought about that night. Now she knew what the camera was for. She crossed her arms in front of her, watching what was going on. She was taking deep breathes in and out to control her anger and get rid of the headache that she was trying so hard to ignore.

“You taped yourself?” Isaac asked, laughing, making fun of him.

“It was the full moon!” Jackson yelled. “And maybe while you were curled in the corner having an existential crisis about turning into a monster, I was preparing for the so-called gift your big, bad alpha promised me and what did I get? Nothing!” He was angry. His voice was harsh. It was no surprise he is the Kanima, Stella thought. “You want proof? Let me get the video.”

“No” Derek said, grimacing. He was looking at the glass he was holding. Stella knew it had a Kanima venom on it. “No, I have a better idea.” Erica and Isaac forced him on his knees. Derek walked towards to him with a smile. Jackson’s breathings were irregular. Erica held him from his hair and pulled him so his face was facing up. His mouth was open. “You know Jackson, you’ve always been kind of a snake. And everyone knows a snake can’t be poisoned by its own venom.” Derek put the venom into his mouth making him choke and breathe heavily. Erica and Isaac, let go off him but as Jackson fell, Stella ran to him. She held him. As the venom worked on Jackson, Stella didn’t leave him. Derek crouched down in front of Jackson as he sighed. “You are still a snake Jackson, just not the one we’re looking for.” Derek stood up, left them but then Isaac leaned over to Jackson.

“You’re still gonna have to do one thing for us.” He laughed before fixing himself. “Well, actually, for me.”

“You okay?” Stella asked when Jackson got out of his panic mood and was able to move his muscles again. Jackson frowned, looking at Stella. He sat down, pulling his knee to himself. Jackson nodded, telling Stella that he was fine, making her to keep talking. “Jackson, you can’t tell anyone that I am here. You understand? They don’t know that I am in Beacon Hills, it has to stay like that.”

Jackson nodded again; Stella bit the inner side of her cheek.

“You and Derek… Are you, like, together?” Jackson asked, he was curious. When Stella understood what Jackson meant, she immediately grimaced but when she started to talk, her voice was full of shock and certainty.

“What?” she practically yelled. “No, no, no… He said, he said I can stay here and I… Jackson.” She stopped talking and pressed her lips together, looking at the guy in front of her who was a total mess. Her brown eyes were locked on his green ones. “You have to be careful. Do you understand me?” Jackson nodded, standing up finally. Stella stood up as well, watching him leave the subway. Stella took a deep breath and turned around. “ISAAC!” She yelled, walking over to him fast. He looked at her with a sarcastic smile that makes Stella want to punch him. Possibly in the nuts but she could take the face as well. “What the hell are you doing Lahey?”

“I just wanna get out of here. You know the feeling way better than anyone right now. You are trapped as much as I am right now.” He shook his head. “The only difference between you and me… you can walk out and not get arrested.”

When Stella felt her phone vibrate right next to the book she was reading on the table, she frowned and reached for the phone. It was a text from Scott. She had a long conversation with him over the phone few days ago and told him almost everything. _Almost…_

**Scott – Derek thinks Lydia is the Kanima. They tested her during chem. She didn’t get affected. Stella, I don’t know what I’m doing. Derek plans on killing her and I know you don’t want anyone to know you are here but I need your help.**

Stella, called Derek immediately. She didn’t know why she didn’t affect the poison but she wasn’t Kanima.

It went to voicemail.

“Damn you, dumbass” she said angrily. “It’s not Lydia. She is not the Kanima!” She sent the exact same mail to Boyd, Isaac and even Erica but all of their phones were off and unreachable.

She wanted to go to that school. She didn’t. She didn’t want Allison to see her or her grandfather to see her. There was a reason she was avoiding him and the more she thought about it the more panic visited her body.

She kept calling Derek his pack but nothing came out. She threw her phone away angrily as she pushed her hair back.

If Lydia got killed today because of her, she would never forgive herself.

“You knew?” Derek asked the minute he walked in. Stella raised her eyebrows looking at him. She was only assuming they figured out Jackson was the Kanima. “You knew it was him? It was Jackson?”

“I am not going to let you kill him, Derek. You just gotta know that.” Derek looked amazed; he didn’t believe her. Right when he opened his mouth to speak up, he noticed the emptiness in Stella’s eyes. He had no idea what was happening. Isaac and he shared a look but then he looked at Erica, still confused. The four werewolves watching Stella but then she suddenly started walking towards the exit.

And for Stella, it was more horrifying and scarier than it looked. When she saw Derek opened his mouth, suddenly they were flashes from her latest hallucination. The environment changed again; Derek, Isaac, Erica and Boyd disappeared and she found herself in the woods.

It wasn’t technically a part of the woods Stella’s been in before. It was a camping spot. There was a little lake and very tall, bended trees and a caravan. There were no lights. It looked abandoned.

And all of a sudden there was a voice, calling for Stella.

“Stella.” It was an unfamiliar woman voice that kept saying her name over an over again until Stella screamed. It was high as before and when she opened her eyes back, she was no longer in the subway. There was the same caravan that was in her hallucination, shattered glass around it. She walked over to it calmly only to see a desk inside, behind the broken glass and there was blood. It was everywhere. The door was open and the footprints on the mud was showing someone ran away.

“It was you.” Stella quickly turned back with reflex, hearing that familiar voice to see Isaac and Derek looking worried at her. Apparently, Erica and Boyd were left behind. “You were the one who was screaming.” Derek stopped, thinking to himself. He started talking again but it looked more like he was talking to himself. “It happened when you first came to town.”

Stella interrupted him before he could continue. “Look, I don’t know what’s happening to me but I can’t stay here.” Her voice was shaking like her hands and her whole body. She knew someone died here today. She didn’t know how she knew it or how she got there but she just knew. She wasn’t a jumpy person who could get scared easily but all of these hallucinations and everything that’s been going on scared the crap out of her. “Go back to the subway, please.”

Normally, Derek wasn’t one of those people who’d care and do what he was told but either he saw how desperate and scared Stella was or he knew they’d get a chance to talk about it. So, without saying anything, him and Isaac went back as they came.

Stella wondered around for a bit, trying to figure things out. She tried to find the body but she failed. Took a deep breath and reached for her phone and went into her contacts and looked at the caller ID that she wanted to call.

Her uncle…

He was the only Argent and only person who knew what was happening with her. She had to tell him about the plan she formed in her head while looking for the body because whenever she was in Beacon Hills, these hallucinations were happening and those were scaring the crap out of Stella, making her feel weak and powerless. She hated that.

Eventually, she called her uncle. He picked after few seconds and without giving him a chance to speak, Stella opened her mouth. She had no right mind to do all those formality greetings at the moment. “It happened again” she said. Chris immediately stopped talking and sensed the fear in her voice. When he realized what she was referring to, he took a deep breath in. He knew how his niece were so fearless and strong but he also knew how scary these things to her which was also normal. “I didn’t leave town like I said I would. I- I’m still in Beacon Hills.” She pushed her hair back, stopped the pacing. “Chris… I- Chris, I have to go.” He didn’t speak for a while. He listened. He heard the fear, he heard the desperation. He heard how serious this situation is. He heard the way Stella’s voice was shaking.

“Come home” he told herr, not even caring about the fact that she lied to them about her road trip. He made a quick plan in his head for his niece who he loved so much. “I’ll drop you off at the airport tomorrow. Stay in France, go to school there. We’ll come to you once Allison’s semester is over and if you want to stay there, you stay there. If you want to come with us, you do that. Okay?”

“Yeah” Stella managed to say as she nodded, even though she knew he wasn’t going to see it.

“Hey” Chris said before Stella hang up and go back to the subway to get her stuff before she went back to her family. “Everything is going to be alright Stella. I’ll help you; we’ll help you. Okay?”

Stella murmured something before she hung up the phone and wiped away that one tear that escaped her brown eyes.

When she got to the subway, she heard Derek and Isaac talking. She took a deep breath before going in but listened on their conversation for a while. Derek said they might know who it was and continued. “Which is why I need one of you to get on their good side.”

“Scott or Stiles?” Erica asked.

“Either” Derek answered. They talked about full moon, what to do and then they talked about Gerard. That’s when Derek saw Stella listening on them. He walked up to her but couldn’t say anything because Stella said something first.

“Before you say anything…” She sighed as she put her hands in her pocket. “I am going to France and I don’t think I am in the right mind to answer any of your questions right now Derek. Besides, I have nothing else to say to you. You know everything I know.” Derek looked at her, checking if she was okay. He kinda knew she wasn’t but didn’t say anything as he nodded. He had enough on his plate anyway.

Stella walked in, talked with Isaac and Boyd for a while before grabbing her things and drive to her house.

Her uncle greeted her with open arms. Stella shut her eyes, trying to feel safe inside Chris’ arms as he placed a kiss on her head. They didn’t speak much; the air was heavy and tense. He helped her with her luggage back to the room.

Stella didn’t see her cousin that night. She didn’t leave her room, she didn’t speak. She just looked through the window, trying to calm herself down.

She was in the airport very early in the next morning. She knew it was for the best because if she saw Allison, she’d want to stay and she had to get away for a while, for a long time but, somehow, she knew she was gonna come back.

Everyone would eventually come back home.

Next morning at 6 AM, she was in the airport. Her uncle dropped her off, hugged her, told her to be careful and left her for her to wait for her flight.

Stella took a deep breath in with the thoughts on her mind but then she heard Scott. “Stella?” She smiled, turning back to look at him. “I was so surprised when you called me and I-”

Stella chuckled softly but it was so obvious that she was very tired. “You are wondering why I asked you to come to the airport, I get it” she guessed what he was gonna say. “The thing is… I’m leaving.” She laughed while Scott looked surprised. “Obviously. Then why would I be in the airport, right?” Scott smiled softly while Stella closed her eyes and shook her head. “I’m sorry. It’s been a long day, long night and a long week and not in a good way.” She opened her eyes, licked her lips. “I can’t stay here because I’ve got things I have to deal with. Complicated things that make me wanna jump off a bridge. Beacon Hills…” Stella took a breath in between her teeth, looking at Scott. “Represents its name pretty well, don’t you think?”

Scott laughed confirming her. “Why did you ask me to come here?” he asked. 

“I am going to tell you everything I know Scott but there are few things I want you to promise me” Stella started, making Scott to confirm her. “There’s a saying that… They say the shape you get reflects the person you are.” Scott looked confused. Stella opened her lips again. “Jackson, he’s been through a lot. That made him the bastard and the jerk he is now but Scott… Everybody deserves to be saved. Even Jackson. You gotta promise me that you will try to save him. Please.”

Stella believed him and she were pretty much the same. Fucked up families, self-esteem issues… They were a mess and Stella had to believe Jackson deserved to be saved because that only meant Stella deserved to be saved. She needed to believe that.

“I will save him Stella but… How do you even know Jackson?”

Stella laughed again, exhausted still. “I know about lots of things and lots of people, McCall, you’d be surprised” she responded, making Scott softly smile at her. “I also know who you can trust and who you can’t. In fact, I can give you a list right now. You can trust Derek and his pack.” She grimaced. “Even that blonde bitch, Erica.” Scott couldn’t help but laugh as she kept talking. “You can trust my uncle, I promise. The only one you can’t trust is my grandfather.”

“You don’t say” Scott said amusingly being sarcastic.

Even though there was a smile on Stella’s face, when she kept talking, she was pretty damn serious. “Scott, I mean it. When I am gone, protect Allison. Gerard has a plan. He always has a plan and since I am not around to deal with him, the key point is Allison. He’s gonna find a way to break her, I know he is. Allison can take care of herself; I know that too but she won’t be expecting an attack from the inside. Gerard is a mastermind at finding opening. He attacks when you least expect it. I know it because I’ve been through that. I’ve lived with the man.” Stella gulped and before he asked any questions, she kept going. “Scott, remember when I said everyone deserves to be saved?”

“Yeah?” asked Scott, frowning.

“Well, my grandfather is not one of those people” Stella continued. “He is way past saving. Besides… I don’t know if you’ve noticed but he’s…”

“He’s dying, isn’t he?”

Stella smiled softly. “Cancer has no joke” she replied. “But so does my grandfather who doesn’t want to die. He’ll do anything. And I mean anything.”

Scott looked like he was getting it. “He wouldn’t go that-”

Stella interrupted. “He would. Believe me he would.”

“So, what’s the plan?” Scott asked curiously.

“Scott, my grandfather was the only one who was there for me for a long time but when he lost my grandmother…” She sighed. “I know a lost case when I see one” Stella said, she was very serious. She couldn’t let her emotions cloud her judgement. Not with this. “I never meant to ask this from you. That’s why I am not going to help you with the planning but I’m sure Deaton…” She smiled when she saw the expression on Scott’s face. “Yes, I know him too. And I am sure he will help you. All I can say is this. Mountain Ash.” She reached for the small bag inside of her pocket and gave it to Scott. “You can’t possibly touch the ash but you can hold it with the bag. So, that should be fine.”

Scott nodded, putting the bag in his pocket. “What are we supposed to do with this?” he asked.

Stella shrugged. “Deaton would know what to do. If you give that to him…”

Scott interrupted her. “It’s going to kill him, isn’t it?”

“Lost case” Stella whispered. “I wish he wasn’t but…” The announcement of her flight was made, interrupting Stella. Young girl gulped as she looked at Scott. “I have to go.” She hugged Scott with a deep breath. “You take care of my cousin, McCall. You save Jackson and…”

Scott pulled himself from the hug, smiling at Stella with his brown eyes gave the comfort Stella was looking from him. “You can trust me Stella” Scott promised. Stella smiled, nodding in the way of saying she knew she could trust him and as she walked over to the gate, she didn’t feel the need to look back.

Stella never came back from France. Even when her aunt Victoria died… All she could do was call her cousin. She hated herself for not being there for her but she couldn’t feel strong enough to go back to that town yet. She needed some time and even though how much Allison needed her by her side, she knew that.

She had no doubt of Scott that he was going to save Jackson. She’s spoken to Scott before she left, told him everything they were supposed to know and she was sure that Derek and Scott could take care of that.

When it was summer, Allison and Chris came to France, gave her the talk. They told her about everything which was actually a very fun moment to watch. The expression on their faces when they realized Stella knew everything all alone.

At least that’s what she thought because it made Allison smile even a little bit. She was going through some hard after her mother and her breakup with Scott. Her heart was breaking and Stella hated every moment of it, watching the person she cared about the most falling apart and trying to get back her pieces.

“Stella, we need to talk to you about something” Chris said, looking at his niece who was watching some day-time French show while eating Pringles chips. When she heard her uncle’s voice, she stopped the show that she could understand very well and straightened up as she looked at her uncle and her cousin.

“What’s up?” she asked playfully.

“Stella” Allison started after getting the confirmation from her father. She was looking at her cousin with her hands tied up together and her elbows on her legs. “The world… The world is not the place you think or you know it is.” She stopped and took a deep breath while Stella’s eyebrows raised up with every sentence showing them how much she enjoyed it but they didn’t realize it until she opened her lips with a smile.

“You mean the werewolves, wendigos, demons, Kanimas and all those kinds of stuff?” she asked, making them choke. Allison and Chris didn’t know what to say or how to react. They just froze, looking at Stella. The thing that got them back on moving was Stella’s loud laughter at their reaction. “Relax guys.” She turned back to her French show. “Your big secret is safe with me.

As Allison’s lips parted softly, Chris frowned. “How long have you known?” he asked curiously.

Stella looked at them, shrugging. She was less sarcastic now. “Uhm… I don’t know” she said and stopped to think about the time she found out. “4 years, give or take?”

“So, you are not angry at us?” Allison asked because this was all she cared about.

“Ah believe me I was for a very long time” Stella answered, looking at them. “And maybe I still am.” She knotted but then she smiled and looked at the hot French guy on her TV and grabbed some pringles. “But that doesn’t mean I am not going to enjoy my movie in peace, right?”

Three Argents smiled at each other; things felt a little normal.

For the rest of the summer, she got the Argent training with Allison. Even though her uncle told them they’d stop hunting and all of this supernatural life behind, Stella said at least he could train them.

And when the summer was over, Stella has made up her mind. She was going back to Beacon Hills and find out what these hallucinations mean. She was gonna go back home with her cousin.

Just not at the same time... Stella had her flight just a day later than them because she had things to do in here and she thought it was better this way.

Besides, she still had the paper in her pocket. No one knew about it.

As she looked out the white clouds through the plane’s window, she reached for the paper. The writings were a little bit blur but they were there. _Peter Hale. Lydia Martin. The full moon. The Hale Fire._

She bit her lower lip as she squeezed the paper in her hands and looked at outside. The sun was hiding behind the blue puffy cloud. “I know you are alive, Peter Hale” she whispered to the existence. “And you are going to tell me everything I want to know.


End file.
